Automated Road Extraction from Radar and Optical Imagery

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Cartography, Geographic Information Science and Geodesy, grade: very good, University of Hannover (Institute for Photogrammetry and GeoInformation), language: English, abstract: The goal of this thesis is to show and compare possibilities of automated roadextraction from different imagery sources. The advantages and disadvantages of two selected extraction algorithms are explained and evaluated in detail by applying them to digital aerial photographs on one hand, and imagery stemming from airborne synthetic aperture radar on the other. The main topic of the present work is the control of road extraction algorithms by adapting their alterable parameters to the given imagery sources, which are black and white orthophotos and radar imagery. Of special importance is the investigation of possible adaptations to regions that bear different general appearances. The thesis also provides detailed insight into these two extraction algorithms in order to be able to optimize their application to both data sources. Furthermore, a combination of optical and radar imagery with the objective of achieving enhanced extraction results is researched. Extensive investigations and convincing examples will show the potential of automated road extraction, taking into account the arising opportunities as well as present limitations.