Updating terrain information in topographic databases using radar aircraft images part. III. A change detection approach

The main objective of this research was to investigate the use of radar images for updating terrain information in topographic databases. The strategy was to utilize change detection image analysis techniques in addition to conventional methods to detect topographic features in radar images, with special emphasis on linear features (e.g. roads). The results show that main and secondary roads can be visually detected using 7×11 meter (in the range and azimuth) spatial resolution HH-polarized L-band aircraft radar data. Automatic feature detection (conventional and model-based) procedures can be employed for the detection of main roads. However, spatial resolution is important since it was not possible to identify tracks and unpaved roads with low resolution. Hence, for the road feature extraction, a very high resolution image must be used. The experimental results shows positive indications for updating main and secondary roads in road network at 1:25,000 scale