Rubble detection from VHR aerial imagery data using differential morphological profiles

Rubble detection is a key element in post disaster crisis assessment and response procedures. In this paper we present an automated method for rapid detection and quantification of rubble from very high resolution (VHR) aerial imagery of urban regions. It is a two step procedure in which the input image is projected on to a hierarchical representation structure for efficient mining and decomposition. Image features matching the geometric and chromatic properties of rubble are fused into a rubble layer that can be re-adjusted interactively. The targeted objects are evaluated based on a density metric given by spatial aggregation. The method is tested on a small-scale exercise on the publically available aerial imagery of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Performance and preliminary results are discussed.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen