bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
AUTOMATIC INTERPRETATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION SAR IMAGES: FIRST RESULTS OF SAR IMAGE SIMULATION FOR SINGLE BUILDINGS
Authors: Tao J. , Palubinskas G. , Reinartz P.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Due to the all-weather data acquisition capabilities, high resolution space borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) plays an important role in remote sensing applications like change detection. However, because of the complex geometric mapping of buildings in urban areas, SAR images are often hard to interpret. SAR simulation techniques ease the visual interpretation of SAR images, while fully automatic interpretation is still a challenge. This paper presents a method for supporting the interpretation of high resolution SAR images with simulated radar images using a LiDAR digital surface model (DSM). Line features are extracted from the simulated and real SAR images and used for matching. A single building model is generated from the DSM and used for building recognition in the SAR image. An application for the concept is presented for the city centre of Munich where the comparison of the simulation to the TerraSAR-X data shows a good similarity. Based on the result of simulation and matching, special features (e.g. like double bounce lines, shadow areas etc.) can be automatically indicated in SAR image.
TERRAIN CORRECTION OF POLARIMETRIC SAR DATA AND ITS APPLICATION IN MAPPING MOUNTAIN GLACIER FACIES WITH RADARSAT-2 SAR
Authors: Tian B. , Li Z. , Zhu Y.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data can be difficult to interpret over glacierized terrain, especially in areas of high relief where most of the smaller glaciers of the world are found. The two primary objectives of this paper are to correct the topographically induce distortions inherent in SAR image of rugged terrain and to map glacier facies in the corrected polarimetric (PolSAR) image. Methods for terrain correction of PolSAR developed in this paper, which base on the coherency matrix data, utilize polarimetric signature to refine the location accuracy and perform the pixel size normalization on each element of the coherency matrix using the backward integration method. Moreover, azimuth-slope correction is immediately following after radiometric correction. A supervised classification is performed on the orthorectified image to map the spatial distribution of snow and ice. The visual boundary between wet snow and bare ice surface is delineated on the orthorectified image too. These results show that glacier facies and the wet snow line can be mapped reasonably well using Radarsat-2 PolSAR in a mountainous environment.
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGE RESOLUTION ENHANCEMENT BASED ON SPECTRAL UNMIXING AND INFORMATION FUSION
Authors: Bieniarz J. , Cerra D. , Avbelj J. , Reinartz P. , Müller R.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Hyperspectral imaging sensors exibit high spectral resolution, but normally low spatial resolution. This leads to spectral signatures of pixels originating from different object types. Such pixels are called mixed pixels. Spectral unmixing methods can be employed to estimate the fractions of reﬂected light from the different objects within the pixel area. However, spectral unmixing does not provide any spatial information about the sources and therefore additional information is needed to precisely locate the sources. In order to restore the spatial information of hyperspectral images we propose a hyperspectral and multispectral image fusion method based on spectral unmixing. The algorithm is tested with HyMAP image data consisting of 125 spectral bands and a simulated multispectral image consisting of 8 bands.
3-D OBJECT RECOGNITION FROM POINT CLOUD DATA
Authors: Smith W. , Walker A. S. , Zhang B.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The market for real-time 3-D mapping includes not only traditional geospatial applications but also navigation of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs). Massively parallel processes such as graphics processing unit (GPU) computing make real-time 3-D object recognition and mapping achievable. Geospatial technologies such as digital photogrammetry and GIS offer advanced capabilities to produce 2-D and 3-D static maps using UAV data. The goal is to develop real-time UAV navigation through increased automation. It is challenging for a computer to identify a 3-D object such as a car, a tree or a house, yet automatic 3-D object recognition is essential to increasing the productivity of geospatial data such as 3-D city site models. In the past three decades, researchers have used radiometric properties to identify objects in digital imagery with limited success, because these properties vary considerably from image to image. Consequently, our team has developed software that recognizes certain types of 3-D objects within 3-D point clouds. Although our software is developed for modeling, simulation and visualization, it has the potential to be valuable in robotics and UAV applications. The locations and shapes of 3-D objects such as buildings and trees are easily recognizable by a human from a brief glance at a representation of a point cloud such as terrain-shaded relief. The algorithms to extract these objects have been developed and require only the point cloud and minimal human inputs such as a set of limits on building size and a request to turn on a squaring option. The algorithms use both digital surface model (DSM) and digital elevation model (DEM), so software has also been developed to derive the latter from the former. The process continues through the following steps: identify and group 3-D object points into regions; separate buildings and houses from trees; trace region boundaries; regularize and simplify boundary polygons; construct complex roofs. Several case studies have been conducted using a variety of point densities, terrain types and building densities. The results have been encouraging. More work is required for better processing of, for example, forested areas, buildings with sides that are not at right angles or are not straight, and single trees that impinge on buildings. Further work may also be required to ensure that the buildings extracted are of fully cartographic quality. A first version will be included in production software later in 2011. In addition to the standard geospatial applications and the UAV navigation, the results have a further advantage: since LiDAR data tends to be accurately georeferenced, the building models extracted can be used to refine image metadata whenever the same buildings appear in imagery for which the GPS/IMU values are poorer than those for the LiDAR.
EVALUATION OF INSAR DEM FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION SPACEBORNE SAR DATA
Authors: Watanabe K. , Sefercik U. G. , Schunert A. , Sörgel U.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. In recent years a new generation of high-resolution SAR satellites became operational like the Canadian Radarsat-2, the Italian Cosmo/Skymed, and the German TerraSAR-X systems. The spatial resolution of such devices achieves the meter domain or even below. Key products derived from remote sensing imagery are Digital Elevation Models (DEM). Based on SAR data various techniques can be applied for such purpose, for example, Radargrammetry (i.e., SAR Stereo) and SAR Interferometry (InSAR). In the framework of the ISPRS Working Group VII/2 "SAR Interferometry" a long term scientific project is conducted that aims at the validation of DEM derived from data of modern SAR satellite sensors. In this paper, we present DEM results yield for the city of Barcelona which were generated by means of SAR Interferometry.
ENDMEMBER EXTRACTION FOR HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGES USING WATERSHED AND NORMALIZED CUTS
Authors: Xu H. , Tian B. , Liu F.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Endmember extraction integrated with spatial information has been concerned on some research recently. In this paper we studies an improved endmember extraction method with spatial preprocessing module which use watershed with normalized cuts to avoid over- segmentation and produce accurate results from spectral mixture analysis. The spatial-spectral endmember extraction method which used the advantages of image segmentation generates the preliminary results and provides important knowledge for future research.
HIGH-RESOLUTION SAR IMAGES FOR FIRE SUSCEPTIBILITY ESTIMATION IN URBAN FORESTRY
Authors: Canale S. , De Santis A. , Iacoviello D. , Pirri F. , Sagratella S.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. We present an adaptive system for the automatic assessment of both physical and anthropic fire impact factors on periurban forestries. The aim is to provide an integrated methodology exploiting a complex data structure built upon a multi resolution grid gathering historical land exploitation and meteorological data, records of human habits together with suitably segmented and interpreted high resolution X-SAR images, and several other information sources. The contribution of the model and its novelty rely mainly on the definition of a learning schema lifting different factors and aspects of fire causes, including physical, social and behavioural ones, to the design of a fire susceptibility map, of a specific urban forestry. The outcome is an integrated geospatial database providing an infrastructure that merges cartography, heterogeneous data and complex analysis, in so establishing a digital environment where users and tools are interactively connected in an efficient and flexible way.
BUILDING MONITORING WITH DIFFERENTIAL DSMS
Authors: Alobeid A. , Jacobsen K. , Heipke C. , Al Rajhi M.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The monitoring of building activity (erection of new buildings, demolishing buildings and especially the change of building heights) by manual inspection of space and aerial images is time consuming and a source of errors. A detection of building changes based on the comparison of digital surface models (DSMs) is more reliable. For this study DSMs have been generated based on aerial images, an IKONOS and a GeoEye-1 stereo pair taken from 2007 up to 2009. By pixel based matching with dynamic programming, semiglobal matching and least squares matching the visible surface has been determined. Semiglobal matching leads to sharp building shapes, while the area based least squares matching smoothes the height model and has more problems in areas with little or without contrast. As is shown in the investigation building changes and building height changes in the range of one floor can in many cases be determined with all methods, however building shapes are better determined using semiglobal matching.
SPECTRAL MATCHING THROUGH DATA COMPRESSION
Authors: Cerra D. , Bieniarz J. , Avbelj J. , Reinartz P. , Müller R.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. This paper proposes to use compression-based similarity measures to cluster spectral signatures on the basis of their similarities. Such universal distances estimate the shared information between two objects by comparing their compression factors, which can be obtained by any standard compressor. Experiments on spectra, both collected in the field and selected from a hyperspectral scene, show that these methods may outperform traditional choices for spectral distances based on vector processing such as Spectral Angle, Spectral Information Divergence, Spectral Correlation, and Euclidean Distance.
SMART SERVICES TO CREATE AN ESDI FROM NSDI: THE EUROPEAN CHALLENGE
Authors: Illert A.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The environmental sector in the European Union has taken the lead in an initiative called INSPIRE that aims at creating the framework for the European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI). With INSPIRE it shall be possible to combine spatial data from different sources in the National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) across the Community in a consistent way and share them between several users and applications. INSPIRE legislation is legally binding on all authorities in the EU member states. From a technical point of view, INSPIRE shall achieve the interoperability of spatial data sets by means of network services. The client of such services shall be enabled to discover, view and download spatial data sets in conformance with harmonised European specifications. INSPIRE promotes conceptual modeling and mandates formal modeling languages such as UML and GML. The domain experts need to find a balance between advanced concepts and traditional but well established patterns, while the proposed solutions should not result in excessive costs for the data providers.
ADVANCED PROCEDURE FOR THE MONITORING OF SETTLEMENT AND OPEN SPACE DEVELOPMENT ON BASIS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL GEODATA SETS IN THE IOER-MONITOR
Authors: Meinel G.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Concept, Procedures and Results of the Monitor of settlement and open space development are presented. The monitoring system will describe the state and the development of land use especially in regard to its sustainability for the entire Federal Republic of Germany. To this end, for the first time ever it makes use of topographical geobasis data (digital landscape model of the Authoritative Topographic-Cartographic Information System, short ATKIS). These data allow for a more precise spatial and contentwise description of land use than that of the land register data, which serve as the basis for the official land use statistics. On the basis of the geobasis data an automatic calculation of indicators from the fields of settlement, open space, nature reserves, population, traffic occurs and landscape fragmentation. The indicators are depicted in thematic maps, thus allowing for spatial and chronological comparisons. In addition to administrative spatial units (federal state, region, district, municipality), the indicator values are also presented in scales of various cell widths. For calculating building-based settlement indicators, the patented program SEMENTA® is used, which is based on an automated evaluation of analogue maps.
THE PARTITION OF MULTI-RESOLUTION LOD BASED ON QTM
Authors: Hou M.-L. , Xing H.-Q. , Zhao X.-S. , Chen J.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The partition hierarch of Quaternary Triangular Mesh (QTM) determine the accuracy of spatial analysis and application based on QTM. In order to resolve the problem that the partition hierarch of QTM is limited by the level of the computer hardware, the new method that Multi- Resolution LOD (Level of Details) based on QTM will be discussed in this paper. This method can make the resolution of the cells varying with the viewpoint position by partitioning the cells of QTM, selecting the particular area according to the viewpoint; dealing with the cracks caused by different subdivisions, it satisfies the request of unlimited partition in part.
TOPOGRAPHIC LOCAL ROUGHNESS EXTRACTION AND CALIBRATION OVER MARTIAN SURFACE BY VERY HIGH RESOLUTION STEREO ANALYSIS AND MULTI SENSOR DATA FUSION
Authors: Kim J.R. , Park J.G.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The planetary topography has been the main focus of the in-orbital remote sensing. In spite of the recent development in active and passive sensing technologies to reconstruct three dimensional planetary topography, the resolution limit of range measurement is theoretically and practically obvious. Therefore, the extraction of inner topographical height variation within a measurement spot is very challengeable and beneficial topic for the many application fields such as the identification of landform, Aeolian process analysis and the risk assessment of planetary lander. In this study we tried to extract the topographic height variation over martian surface so called local roughness with different approaches. One method is the employment of laser beam broadening effect and the other is the multi angle optical imaging. Especially, in both cases, the precise pre processing employing high accuracy DTM (Digital Terrain Model) were introduced to minimise the possible errors. Since a processing routine to extract very high resolution DTMs up to 0.5–4m grid-spacing from HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and 20–10m DTM from CTX (Context Camera) stereo pair has been developed, it is now possible to calibrate the local roughness compared with the calculated height variation from very high resolution topographic products. Three testing areas were chosen and processed to extract local roughness with the co-registered multi sensor data sets. Even though, the extracted local roughness products are still showing the strong correlation with the topographic slopes, we demonstrated the potentials of the height variations extraction and calibration methods.
DEM EXTRACTION FROM CHANG'E-1 LAM DATA BY SURFACE SKINNING TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Zhang X.-B. , Zhang W.-M.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. DEM is a digital model or 3-D representation of a terrain's surface and it is created from terrain elevation data. The main models for DEM extraction based on Lidar data or Laser Altimeter data currently use the idea that point cloud is scattered, such as regular grid model, TIN model and contour model. Essentially, in these above methods, the discrete points are interpolated into regular grid data and irregular grid data. In fact, point cloud generated by Laser Altimeter is not totally scattered, but have some regularity. In this paper, to utilize this regularity, the proposed method adopts surface skinning technology to generate DEM from Chang'E-1 Laser Altimeter data. The surface skinning technology is widely used in the field of mechanical engineering. Surface skinning is the process of passing a smooth surface through a set of curves called sectional curves, which, in general, may not be compatible. In the process of generating section line, a need for attention is that it needs to use curvature method to get a set of characteristic points, and these feature points were used to subdivide segment; the next step is generating several curves on some key places. These curves describe the shape of the curved surface. The last step is to generate a curved surface that through these curves. The result shows that, this idea is feasible, useful and it provides a novel way to generate accurate DEM.
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN OF GIS WEB SERVICE AGGREGATION BASED ON SERVICE GROUP
Authors: Liu J.-C. , Yang J. , Tan M.-J. , Gan Q.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Based on the analysis of research status of domestic and international GIS web service aggregation and development tendency of public platform of GIS web service, the paper designed software architecture of GIS web service aggregation based on GIS web service group. Firstly, using heterogeneous GIS services model, the software architecture converted a variety of heterogeneous services to a unified interface of GIS services, and divided different types of GIS services into different service groups referring to description of GIS services. Secondly, a service aggregation process model was designed. This model completed the task of specific service aggregation instance, by automatically selecting member GIS Web services in the same service group. Dynamic capabilities and automatic adaptation of GIS Web services aggregation process were achieved. Thirdly, this paper designed a service evaluation model of GIS web service aggregation based on service group from three aspects, i.e. GIS Web Service itself, networking conditions and service consumer. This model implemented effective quality evaluation and performance monitoring of GIS web service aggregation. It could be used to guide the execution, monitor and service selection of aggregation process. Therefore, robustness of aggregated GIS web service was improved. Finally, the software architecture has been widely used in public platform of GIS web service and a number of geo-spatial framework constructions for digital city in Sichuan Province, and aggregated various GIS web services such as World Map(National Public Platform of Geo-spatial Service), ArcGIS, SuperMap, MapGIS, NewMap etc. Applications of items showed that this software architecture was practicability.
TOWARDS INTRODUCING A GEOCODING INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR GREENLAND
Authors: Siksnans J. , Pirupshvarre Hans R. , Lind M. , Mioc D. , Anton F.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Currently, addressing practices in Greenland do not support geocoding. Addressing points on a map by geographic coordinates is vital for emergency services such as police and ambulance for avoiding ambiguities in finding incident locations (Government of Greenland, 2010) Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the current addressing practices in Greenland. Asiaq (Asiaq, 2011) is a public enterprise of the Government of Greenland which holds three separate databases regards addressing and place references: – list of locality names (towns, villages, farms), – technical base maps (including road center lines not connected with names, and buildings), – the NIN registry (The Land Use Register of Greenland - holds information on the land allotments and buildings in Greenland). The main problem is that these data sets are not interconnected, thus making it impossible to address a point in a map with geographic coordinates in a standardized way. The possible solutions suffer from the fact that Greenland has a scattered habitation pattern and the generalization of the address assignment schema is a difficult task. A schema would be developed according to the characteristics of the settlement pattern, e.g. cities, remote locations and place names. The aim is to propose an ontology for a common postal address system for Greenland. The main part of the research is dedicated to the current system and user requirement engineering. This allowed us to design a conceptual database model which corresponds to the user requirements, and implement a small scale prototype. Furthermore, our research includes resemblance findings in Danish and Greenland's addressing practices, data dictionary for establishing Greenland addressing system's logical model and enhanced entity relationship diagram. This initial prototype of the Greenland addressing system could be used to evaluate and build the full architecture of the addressing information system for Greenland. Using software engineering methods the implementation can be done according to the developed data model and initial database prototype. Development of the Greenland addressing system using a modern GIS and database technology would ease the work and improve the quality of public services such as: postal delivery, emergency response, customer/business relationship management, administration of land, utility planning and maintenance and public statistical data analysis.
AN APPROACH ON DYNAMIC GEOSPAITAL INFORMATION SERVICE COMPOSITION BASED ON CONTEXT RELATIONSHIP
Authors: Cheng D. , Wang F.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. For the new demand of dynamic integration of spatial data, the model and collaboration of processing functions caused by characteristics of dynamic interaction and the participants random demand for information in geo-collaboration work system, for instance, during on-line consultation meeting, the paper presented an approach considering context dynamic service composition information. Firstly, the paper introduced the dividing method of context relation in consultation from the user and GI services, interaction between services and service perspective, constructed GI service context relation, and established GI service description model considering service's context relation based on OWL-S. For the problems above, the paper proposed an approach on GI service dynamic composition based on context relationship. Then, the paper provided a framework for GI services dynamic composition, and discussed every important component of framework. Finally, an experiment about checking illegal construction on boundary was implemented to illustrate the concepts and ideas discussed in the paper.
AN ONTOLOGY-BASED APPROACH TO INCORPORATE USER-GENERATED GEO-CONTENT INTO SDI
Authors: Deng D.-P. , Lemmens R.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The Web is changing the way people share and communicate information because of emergence of various Web technologies, which enable people to contribute information on the Web. User-Generated Geo-Content (UGGC) is a potential resource of geographic information. Due to the different production methods, UGGC often cannot fit in geographic information model. There is a semantic gap between UGGC and formal geographic information. To integrate UGGC into geographic information, this study conducts an ontology-based process to bridge this semantic gap. This ontology-based process includes five steps: Collection, Extraction, Formalization, Mapping, and Deployment. In addition, this study implements this process on Twitter messages, which is relevant to Japan Earthquake disaster. By using this process, we extract disaster relief information from Twitter messages, and develop a knowledge base for GeoSPARQL queries in disaster relief information.
DESIGN AND PRACTICE ON METADATA SERVICE SYSTEM OF SURVEYING AND MAPPING RESULTS BASED ON GEONETWORK
Authors: Zha Z. , Zhou X.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Based on the analysis and research on the current geographic information sharing and metadata service，we design, develop and deploy a distributed metadata service system based on GeoNetwork covering more than 30 nodes in provincial units of China.. By identifying the advantages of GeoNetwork, we design a distributed metadata service system of national surveying and mapping results. It consists of 31 network nodes, a central node and a portal. Network nodes are the direct system metadata source, and are distributed arround the country. Each network node maintains a metadata service system, responsible for metadata uploading and management. The central node harvests metadata from network nodes using OGC CSW 2.0.2 standard interface. The portal shows all metadata in the central node, provides users with a variety of methods and interface for metadata search or querying. It also provides management capabilities on connecting the central node and the network nodes together. There are defects with GeoNetwork too. Accordingly, we made improvement and optimization on big-amount metadata uploading, synchronization and concurrent access. For metadata uploading and synchronization, by carefully analysis the database and index operation logs, we successfully avoid the performance bottlenecks. And with a batch operation and dynamic memory management solution, data throughput and system performance are significantly improved; For concurrent access, , through a request coding and results cache solution, query performance is greatly improved. To smoothly respond to huge concurrent requests, a web cluster solution is deployed. This paper also gives an experiment analysis and compares the system performance before and after improvement and optimization. Design and practical results have been applied in national metadata service system of surveying and mapping results. It proved that the improved GeoNetwork service architecture can effectively adaptive for distributed deployment requirements, performance improvement and optimization of the system guarantee its continuous and stable running on the internet.
WYSIWYG GEOPROCESSING: COUPLING SENSOR WEB AND GEOPROCESSING SERVICES IN VIRTUAL GLOBES
Authors: Zhai X. , Gong J. , Yue P. , Sun Z. , Lu X.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. We propose to advance the scientific understanding and applications of geospatial data by coupling Sensor Web and Geoprocessing Services in Virtual Globes for higher-education teaching and research. The vision is the concept of "What You See is What You Get" geoprocessing, shortly known as WYSIWYG geoprocessing. Virtual Globes offer tremendous opportunities, such as providing a learning tool to help educational users and researchers digest global-scale geospatial information about the world, and acting as WYSIWYG platforms, where domain experts can see what their fingertips act in an interactive three-dimensional virtual environment. In the meantime, Sensor Web and Web Service technologies make a large amount of Earth observing sensors and geoprocessing functionalities easily accessible to educational users and researchers like their local resources. Coupling Sensor Web and geoprocessing Services in Virtual Globes will bring a virtual learning and research environment to the desktops of students and professors, empowering them with WYSIWYG geoprocessing capabilities. The implementation combines the visualization and communication power of Virtual Globes with the on-demand data collection and analysis functionalities of Sensor Web and geoprocessing services, to help students and researchers investigate various scientific problems in an environment with natural and intuitive user experiences. The work will contribute to the scientific and educational activities of geoinformatic communities in that they will have a platform that are easily accessible and help themselves perceive world space and perform live geoscientific processes.
THE SEMANTIC RETRIEVAL OF SPATIAL DATA SERVICE BASED ON ONTOLOGY IN SIG
Authors: Sun S. , Liu D. , Li G. , Yu W.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The research of SIG (Spatial Information Grid) mainly solves the problem of how to connect different computing resources, so that users can use all the resources in the Grid transparently and seamlessly. In SIG, spatial data service is described in some kinds of specifications, which use different meta-information of each kind of services. This kind of standardization cannot resolve the problem of semantic heterogeneity, which may limit user to obtain the required resources. This paper tries to solve two kinds of semantic heterogeneities (name heterogeneity and structure heterogeneity) in spatial data service retrieval based on ontology, and also, based on the hierarchical subsumption relationship among concept in ontology, the query words can be extended and more resource can be matched and found for user. These applications of ontology in spatial data resource retrieval can help to improve the capability of keyword matching, and find more related resources.
UPDATING GEOSPATIAL DATA FROM LARGE SCALE DATA SOURCES
Authors: Zhao R. , Chen J. , Wang D. , Shang Y. , Wang Z. , Li X. , Ai T.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. In the past decades, many geospatial databases have been established at national, regional and municipal levels over the world. Nowadays, it has been widely recognized that how to update these established geo-spatial database and keep them up to date is most critical for the value of geo-spatial database. So, more and more efforts have been devoted to the continuous updating of these geospatial databases. Currently, there exist two main types of methods for Geo-spatial database updating: directly updating with remote sensing images or field surveying materials, and indirectly updating with other updated data result such as larger scale newly updated data. The former method is the basis because the update data sources in the two methods finally root from field surveying and remote sensing. The later method is often more economical and faster than the former. Therefore, after the larger scale database is updated, the smaller scale database should be updated correspondingly in order to keep the consistency of multi-scale geo-spatial database. In this situation, it is very reasonable to apply map generalization technology into the process of geo-spatial database updating. The latter is recognized as one of most promising methods of geo-spatial database updating, especially in collaborative updating environment in terms of map scale, i.e , different scale database are produced and maintained separately by different level organizations such as in China. This paper is focused on applying digital map generalization into the updating of geo-spatial database from large scale in the collaborative updating environment for SDI. The requirements of the application of map generalization into spatial database updating are analyzed firstly. A brief review on geospatial data updating based digital map generalization is then given. Based on the requirements analysis and review, we analyze the key factors for implementing updating geospatial data from large scale including technical and non-technical factors, followed by the general strategy of digital map generalization in practical production environment. In fact the most important factor is recognized that it is very difficult to establish generalization rules for production systems. We emphasized on this factor in our work and established a set of rules or constrains for scale topographical database updating 1:50000 scaled data from 1:10000 scaled data in a full digital environment mainly based on map specifications. Finally, We discussed the generic system structure and give an example of production system used in the project of 1:50000 scaled database updating in China.
MULTIPLE-MODEL BASED UPDATE OF BELGIAN REFERENCE ROAD DATA
Authors: Ziems M. , Beyen J. , Mueller S. , Roovers S. , Heipke C.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. This paper describes a semi-automatic system for road update based on high resolution orthophotos and 3D surface models. Potential update regions are identified by an object-wise verification of all existing database records, followed by a scene-wide detection of redevelopment regions. The proposed system combines several road detection and road verification approaches from current literature to form a more general solution. Each road detection / verification approach is realized as an independent module representing a unique road model combined with a corresponding processing strategy. The object-wise verification result of each module is formulated as a binary decision between the classes "correct road" and "incorrect road". These individual decisions are combined by Dempster-Shafer fusion, which provides tools for dealing with uncertain and incomplete knowledge about the statistical properties of the data. For each road detection / verification module a confidence function for the result is introduced that reflects the degree of correspondence of an actual test situation with an optimal situation according to the underlying road model of that module. Experimental results achieved with data from the national Belgian road database in a test site of about 134 km2 demonstrate the potential of the method.
POINTS CLASSIFICATION BY A SEQUENTIAL HIGHER – ORDER MOMENTS STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF LIDAR DATA
Authors: Crosilla F. , Macorig D. , Sebastianutti I. , Visintini D.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The paper deals with a new sequential procedure to perform unsupervised LIDAR points classification by iteratively studying skewness and kurtosis for elevation and intensity point distribution values. After a preliminary local shape analysis of elevation and intensity point distributions, carried out from the original discrete frequencies by a non parametric estimation of the density functions, the procedure starts by choosing the category of data (elevation or intensity) to analyse at first: the choice falls on the category better showing by a testing procedure a bi or a multi clustering distribution. The first point cluster is identified by studying the distribution skewness and kurtosis variations, after removing at each step the largest data values. The selected cluster is furthermore analysed by studying higher order moments behaviour of the complementary data category. This makes possible to find out potential sub clusters of the original selected one, permitting, in this way, a more effective point classification. Successive clusters are identified by applying the same iterative procedure to the still unclassified LIDAR points. For complex point distribution shapes or for the classification of large areas, a progressive analysis method, based on the partition of the entire data set into regular subsets, is proposed. Some real numerical experiments confirm the capability of the method proposed. The classification total errors in the experiments range from a minimum value of 1,2% to a maximum value of 8,9%.
HEURISTICAL FEATURE EXTRACTION FROM LIDAR DATA AND THEIR VISUALIZATION
Authors: Ghosh S. , Lohani B.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Extraction of landscape features from LiDAR data has been studied widely in the past few years. These feature extraction methodologies have been focussed on certain types of features only, namely the bare earth model, buildings principally containing planar roofs, trees and roads. In this paper, we present a methodology to process LiDAR data through DBSCAN, a density based clustering method, which extracts natural and man-made clusters. We then develop heuristics to process these clusters and simplify them to be sent to a visualization engine.
EVALUATION OF REAL-TIME HAND MOTION TRACKING USING A RANGE CAMERA AND THE MEAN-SHIFT ALGORITHM
Authors: Lahamy H. , Lichti D.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Several sensors have been tested for improving the interaction between humans and machines including traditional web cameras, special gloves, haptic devices, cameras providing stereo pairs of images and range cameras. Meanwhile, several methods are described in the literature for tracking hand motion: the Kalman filter, the mean-shift algorithm and the condensation algorithm. In this research, the combination of a range camera and the simple version of the mean-shift algorithm has been evaluated for its capability for hand motion tracking. The evaluation was assessed in terms of position accuracy of the tracking trajectory in x, y and z directions in the camera space and the time difference between image acquisition and image display. Three parameters have been analyzed regarding their influence on the tracking process: the speed of the hand movement, the distance between the camera and the hand and finally the integration time of the camera. Prior to the evaluation, the required warm-up time of the camera has been measured. This study has demonstrated the suitability of the range camera used in combination with the mean-shift algorithm for real-time hand motion tracking but for very high speed hand movement in the traverse plane with respect to the camera, the tracking accuracy is low and requires improvement.
FEATURES AND GROUND AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION FROM AIRBORNE LIDAR DATA
Authors: Costantino D. , Angelini M. G.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. The aim of the research has been the developing and implementing an algorithm for automated extraction of features from LIDAR scenes with varying terrain and coverage types. This applies the moment of third order (Skweness) and fourth order (Kurtosis). While the first has been applied in order to produce an initial filtering and data classification, the second, through the introduction of the weights of the measures, provided the desired results, which is a finer classification and less noisy. The process has been carried out in Matlab but to reduce processing time, given the large data density, the analysis has been limited at a mobile window. It was, therefore, arranged to produce subscenes in order to covers the entire area. The performance of the algorithm, confirm its robustness and goodness of results. Employment of effective processing strategies to improve the automation is a key to the implementation of this algorithm. The results of this work will serve the increased demand of automation for 3D information extraction using remotely sensed large datasets. After obtaining the geometric features from LiDAR data, we want to complete the research creating an algorithm to vector features and extraction of the DTM.
THE EFFECTS OF LASER REFLECTION ANGLE ON RADIOMETRIC CORRECTION OF THE AIRBORNE LIDAR INTENSITY DATA
Authors: Shaker A. , Yan W. Y. , El-Ashmawy N.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Radiometric correction (RC) of the airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) intensity data has been studied in the last few years. The physical model of the RC relies on the use of the laser range equation to convert the intensity values into the spectral reflectance of the reflected objects. A number of recent studies investigated the effects of the LiDAR system parameters (i.e. range, incidence angle, beam divergence, aperture size, automatic gain control, etc.) on the results of the RC process. Nevertheless, the condition of the object surface (slope and aspect) plays a crucial role in modelling the recorded intensity data. The variation of the object surface slope and aspect affects the direction as well as the magnitude of the reflected laser pulse which makes significant influence on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function. In this paper, the effects of the angle of reflection, which is the angle between the surface normal and the incidence laser pulse, on the RC results of the airborne LiDAR intensity data is investigated. A practical approach is proposed to compute the angle of reflection using the digital surface model (DSM) derived from the LiDAR data. Then, a comparison between the results of the intensity data after RC using the scan angle and RC using the angle of reflection is carried out. The comparison is done by converting the intensity data into equivalent image data and evaluating the classification results of the intensity image data. Preliminary findings show that: 1) the variance-to-mean ratio of the land cover features are significantly reduced while using the angle of reflection in the RC process; 2) 4% of accuracy improvement can be achieved using the intensity data corrected with the scan angle. The accuracy improvement increases to 8% when using the intensity data corrected with the angle of reflection. The research work practically justifies the use of the reflection angle in the RC process of airborne LiDAR intensity data.
AEROTRIANGULATION SUPPORTED BY CAMERA STATION POSITION DETERMINED VIA PHYSICAL INTEGRATION OF LIDAR AND SLR DIGITAL CAMERA
Authors: Mitishita E. , Martins M. , Centeno J. , Hainosz F.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Nowadays lidar and photogrammetric surveys have been used together in many mapping procedures due to their complementary characteristics. Lidar survey is capable to promptly acquire reliable elevation information that is sometimes difficult via photogrammetric procedure. On the other hand, photogrammetric survey is easily able to get semantic information of the objects. Accessibility, availability, the increasing sensor size and quick image acquisition and processing are properties that have raised the use of SLR digital cameras in photogrammetry. Orthoimage generation is a powerful photogrammetric mapping procedure, where the advantages of the integration of lidar and image datasets are very well characterized. However, to perform this application both datasets must be within a common reference frame. In this paper, a procedure to have digital images positioned and oriented in the same lidar frame via a combination of direct and indirect georeferencing is studied. The SLR digital camera was physically connected with the lidar system to calculate the camera station's position in lidar frame. After that, the aerotriangulation supported by camera station's position is performed to get image's exterior orientation parameters (EOP).
LIDAR AND INS FUSION IN PERIODS OF GPS OUTAGES FOR MOBILE LASER SCANNING MAPPING SYSTEMS
Authors: Klein I. , Filin S.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Mobile laser scanning systems are becoming an increasingly popular means to obtain 3D coverage on a large scale. To perform the mapping, the exact position of the vehicle must be known throughout the trajectory. Exact position is achieved via integration of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS). Yet, in urban environments, cases of complete or even partial GPS outages may occur leaving the navigation solution to rely only on the INS. The INS navigation solution degrades with time as the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements contains noise, which permeates into the navigation equations. Degradation of the position determination leads to loss of data in such segments. To circumvent such drift and its effects, we propose fusing INS with lidar data by using building edges. This detection of edges is then translated into position data, which is used as an aiding to the INS. It thereby enables the determination of the vehicle position with a satisfactory level accuracy, sufficient to perform the laser-scanning based mapping in those outage periods.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ACCURATE DEM GENERARTION USING AIRBOREN FULL WAVEFORM LIDAR DATA
Authors: Hu B. , Gumerov D. , Wang J.-G.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. In this study, full waveform LiDAR data were exploited to improve the generation of a large-scale digital elevation model (DEM). Building on the methods of progressive generation of triangulation irregular network (TIN) model reported in the literature, we proposed an integrated approach. In this method, echo detection, terrain identification, and TIN generation were performed synergically and iteratively, instead of their separate determinations as in most DEM generation methods. This method started with a TIN model made up of terrain points detected using a morphological opening operation and a curve matching method. For any given TIN facet, the full waveforms of the return associated with the laser pulses interacting with this TIN facet were examined near the surface for any terrain echoes. The TIN was then updated using the newly detected terrain points. These processes were iterated until no new terrain points were identified. The developed method was tested on a data set collected by a Riegl LMS Q-560 scanner over a study area near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada (46°33'56''N, 83°25'18''W). The results demonstrated that 30% more terrain points were identified under shrubs and trees using this integrated approach, compared with the commonly used Gaussian decomposition method. The DEMs generated by the developed method exhibited more details in the terrain for two test sites than those obtained by using the TerraScan software.
ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF GLAS MEASUREMENTS OVER ISRAEL
Authors: Shtain Z. , Filin S.
Published: September 2012

Abstract. Availability of spaceborne laser data on a global scale motivates evaluation of their quality as a means to improve large scale terrain models or to identify changes over time. One prominent spaceborne system is the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) mounted on board the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) whose objectives were to track elevation changes of the Greenland and Antarctica's glaciers, but topographic information on other regions has been acquired as well. As the ICESat mission is the first to offer high-standard spaceborne laser derived topographic information, this paper evaluates its data quality. To that end, a large set of laser returns over Israel has been utilized and evaluated against a wide spectrum of data as a reference.