Object-based building change detection using azimuth and elevation angles of sun and platform in the multi-sensor images

Building change monitoring based on building detection is one of the most important fields in terms of monitoring artificial structures using high-resolution multi-temporal images such as CAS500-1 and 2, which are scheduled to be launched. However, not only the various shapes and sizes of buildings located on the surface of the Earth, but also the shadows or trees around them make it difficult to detect the buildings accurately. Also, a large number of misdetection are caused by relief displacement according to the azimuth and elevation angles of the platform. In this study, object-based building detection was performed using the azimuth angle of the Sun and the corresponding main direction of shadows to improve the results of building change detection. After that, the platform's azimuth and elevation angles were used to detect changed buildings. The object-based segmentation was performed on a high-resolution imagery, and then shadow objects were classified through the shadow intensity, and feature information such as rectangular fit, Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) homogeneity and area of each object were calculated for building candidate detection. Then, the final buildings were detected using the direction and distance relationship between the center of building candidate object and its shadow according to the azimuth angle of the Sun. A total of three methods were proposed for the building change detection between building objects detected in each image: simple overlay between objects, comparison of the object sizes according to the elevation angle of the platform, and consideration of direction between objects according to the azimuth angle of the platform. In this study, residential area was selected as study area using high-resolution imagery acquired from KOMPSAT-3 and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Experimental results have shown that F1-scores of building detection results detected using feature information were 0.488 and 0.696 respectively in KOMPSAT-3 image and UAV image, whereas F1-scores of building detection results considering shadows were 0.876 and 0.867, respectively, indicating that the accuracy of building detection method considering shadows is higher. Also among the three proposed building change detection methods, the F1-score of the consideration of direction between objects according to the azimuth angles was the highest at 0.891.