Building detection using directional spatial constraints

We propose an algorithm for automatic detection of buildings with complex shapes and roof structures in very high spatial resolution remotely sensed images. First, an initial oversegmentation is obtained. Then, candidate building regions are found using shadow and sun azimuth angle information. Finally, the building regions are selected by clustering the candidate regions using minimum spanning trees. The experiments on Ikonos scenes show that the algorithm is able to detect buildings with complex appearances and shapes.