An update on automatic 3D building reconstruction

The development of tools for the generation of 3D city models started almost two decades ago. From the beginning, fully automatic reconstruction systems were envisioned to fulfil the need for efficient data collection. However, research on automatic city modelling is still a very active area. The paper will review a number of current approaches in order to comprehensively elaborate the state of the art of reconstruction methods and their respective principles. Originally, automatic city modelling only aimed at polyhedral building objects, which mainly reflects the respective roof shapes and building footprints. For this purpose, airborne images or laser scans are used. In addition to these developments, the paper will also review current approaches for the generation of more detailed facade geometries from terrestrial data collection.