Extracting GIS features from high resolution imagery for map production or to update or generate GIS databases will be a common task in remote sensing in the coming years. These features are often described and defined in feature catalogues such as the German ATKIS or the military Vmap catalogues.

3rd International Symposium on Retrieval of Bio- and Geophysical
Parameters from SAR Data for Land Applications
11-14 September, 2001
University of Sheffield, UK

Laser scanner data is being increasingly used to obtain topographical and object height information for mapping and GIS tasks. Valuable information can be derived of the terrain and objects of a region. Different methods have been published to segment laser scanner data in order to extract information. This paper aims to discuss the extraction of buildings to transfer 2D building data into 3D building data of a higher accuracy. For this study, only laser scanner data and scanned topographical maps are to be used. The study can be divided into two parts: segmentation and detection.

While remote sensing made enormous progress over the last years in terms of improved resolution, data availability and public awareness, a vast majority of applications rely on basic image processing concepts developed in the 70s: per-pixel classification of in a multi-dimensional feature space. It is argued that this methodology does not make use of any spatial concepts. Especially in high-resolution images it is very likely that neighbouring pixels belong to the same land cover class as the pixel under consideration.

A necessary prerequisite for object oriented image processing is successful image segmentation. The approach presented in this paper aims for an universal high-quality solution applicable and adaptable to many problems and data types. As each image analysis problem deals with structures of a certain spatial scale, the average image objects size must be free adaptable to the scale of interest.

Objektbasierte Verfahren bieten besonders für hochaufgelöste Bilddaten neue Möglichkeiten der Objektextraktion, da neben spektralen Merkmalen auch zusätzliche Informationen über Form, Größe und Kontext in die Klassifikation eingebracht werden können. Grundlage der objektbasierten Verfahren bildet die Segmentierung der Bilddaten. Der Segmentierungsalgorithmus der Bildanalysesoftware eCognition wird vorgestellt und dessen Wirkungsweise an Hand von Untersuchungen mit künstlichen Bildern demonstriert.

Malaria remains one of the greatest killers of human beings, particularly in the developing world. The World Health Organization has estimated that over one million cases of Malaria are reported each year, with more than 80% of these found in Sub-Saharan Africa. The anopheline mosquito transmits malaria, and breeds in areas of shallow surface water that are suitable to the mosquito and parasite development. These environmental factors can be detected with satellite imagery, which provide high spatial and temporal coverage of most of the earth’s surface.

The thesis topic is land cover mapping with pixel based and object oriented image analysis approaches for coal fire research,preformed under the project of "coal fire research in China". The Study area is Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China

The accuracy of determination of the local risk potential for the use of pesticides in agricultural areas depends among other things on the available spatial information. Due to the low spatio-temporal resolution of most of the area-wide available geodata, the development of decision support systems on the farm-level generally is limited by the input data. In Germany coloured digital aerial images with a high spatio-temporal resolution (hr-images) are operational and area-wide available.

The merging of remote sensing, GIS and visualization techniques was applied to demonstrate the potential for realistic computer visualizations depicting the dynamic nature of forested environments. Scientific visualizations can aid in environmental and forest management decision making as a support tool and in landscape ecology to relay the findings of studies.