On the feasibility to map the settlements of Brazil with the CBERS-2B satellite

This paper reports about the feasibility to automatically map the settlements of Brazil with the panchromatic, 2.5 m data of the HRC camera of the CBERS-2B satellite. Using a combined textural and morphological image analysis in a fully automated workflow an equal error rate of 0.18 ± 0.09 and a minimal error rate of 0.06 ± 0.06 could be obtained for an area of 1.4 million km² of the most densely inhabited parts of Brazil. The method provides in addition to the presence of buildings information about the building density and average size.