AUTOMATIC BUILDING EXTRACTION BASED ON MULTI-SOURCE DATA FUSION

An automatic approach and strategy for extracting building information from aerial images using combined image analysis and interpretation techniques is described in this paper. A dense DSM is obtained by stereo image matching. Multi-band classification, DSM, texture segmentation and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are used to reveal building interest areas. Then, based on the derived approximate building areas, a shape modelling algorithm based on the level set formulation of curve and surface motion has been used to precisely delineate the building boundaries. Data fusion, based on the Dempster-Shafer technique, is used to interpret simultaneously knowledge from several data sources of the same region, to find the intersection of propositions on extracted information derived from several datasets, together with their associated probabilities. A number of test areas, which include buildings with different sizes, shape and roof colour have been investigated. The tests are encouraging and demonstrate that the system is effective for building extraction, and the determination of more accurate elevations of the terrain surface.