Automatic extraction of digital elevation from IKONOS in-track stereo images

This Thesis addresses the topic of the extraction of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from the in-track stereo images acquired by IKONOS satellite. Research on this topic is mainly motivated by the need of DEMs in trasportation and the potential use of very high resolution satellite stereo images to replace the traditional aerial photography to generate the DEMs that may be used for preliminary planning and location issues, limiting expensive and time consuming photogrammetry work to the final alignment corridor. In this thesis, two methods for DEM extraction from IKONOS stereo images using a modified Rational Function Model (RFM) and the 3D physical model developed at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) are used and the accuracy of the DEMs generated using these two models are evaluated. The nominal accuracy of ground points determined with the vendor-supplied RPCs is evaluated and systematic biases are found. A significant improvement in the DEM accuracy is made by removing the biases in both the image and ground domain with the information of ground control. DEMs are automatically generated bya chain of processes using the PCI Geomatica OrthoEngine software package with the refined RFM and 3D physical model, respectively. The DEMs from these two methods are then compared in a desktop ERDAS Imagine environment and the accuracy of the DEMs is evaluated by comparing the extracted DEMs with the DEM from airphotos. The DEMs generated using different mathematical models have a very good consistence and more than 97% of the difference between the generated DEMs and the DEM from airphotos is between -2 m to 2m.

Automatic extraction of digital elevation from IKONOS in-track stereo images

This Thesis addresses the topic of the extraction of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from the in-track stereo images acquired by IKONOS satellite. Research on this topic is mainly motivated by the need of DEMs in trasportation and the potential use of very high resolution satellite stereo images to replace the traditional aerial photography to generate the DEMs that may be used for preliminary planning and location issues, limiting expensive and time consuming photogrammetry work to the final alignment corridor. In this thesis, two methods for DEM extraction from IKONOS stereo images using a modified Rational Function Model (RFM) and the 3D physical model developed at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) are used and the accuracy of the DEMs generated using these two models are evaluated. The nominal accuracy of ground points determined with the vendor-supplied RPCs is evaluated and systematic biases are found. A significant improvement in the DEM accuracy is made by removing the biases in both the image and ground domain with the information of ground control. DEMs are automatically generated bya chain of processes using the PCI Geomatica OrthoEngine software package with the refined RFM and 3D physical model, respectively. The DEMs from these two methods are then compared in a desktop ERDAS Imagine environment and the accuracy of the DEMs is evaluated by comparing the extracted DEMs with the DEM from airphotos. The DEMs generated using different mathematical models have a very good consistence and more than 97% of the difference between the generated DEMs and the DEM from airphotos is between -2 m to 2m.

Sub-Canopy Topography Estimation from TanDEM-X DEM by Fusing ALOS-2 PARSAR-2 InSAR Coherence and GEDI Data

This paper develops a framework for extracting sub-canopy topography from the TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM) by fusing ALOS-2 PARSAR-2 interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) coherence and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data. The main idea of this method is to estimate the forest height signals caused by the limited penetration of the X-band into the canopy from the TanDEM-X DEM. To achieve this goal, a spaceborne repeat-pass InSAR coherent scattering model is first used to estimate the forest height by the ALOS-2 PARSAR-2 InSAR coherence (APIC), taking the GEDI canopy height as the reference. Then, a linear regression model of the TanDEM-X DEM Vegetation Bias (TDVB) depending on the forest height and the fraction of vegetation cover (FVC) is established and used to estimate the sub-canopy topography. The proposed method was validated by the data of the Amazon rainforest and a boreal forest in Canada. The results showed that the proposed method extracted the sub-canopy topography at the study sites in the tropical forest and boreal forest with the root mean square error of 4.0 m and 6.33 m, respectively, and improved the TanDEM-X DEM accuracy by 75.7% and 39.7%, respectively.

Surface Subsidence in Urbanized Coastal Areas: PSI Methods Based on Sentinel-1 for Ho Chi Minh City

In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, though at present flooding is merely a recurring nuisance, there is increasing concern that a combination of impending climate change and rapid urbanization will significantly exacerbate the situation. Given the significant measures taken in HCMC to reduce groundwater extraction and sea-level rise (SLR) inundation since the most recent subsidence studies, we aim to update and contribute to the subsidence information of HCMC with continuous temporal coverage from 2017 to 2019. In this study, we use Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) with Copernicus Sentinel-1 data and open source tools to determine current subsidence rates within the urban center of HCMC. Additionally, the scalability of this method and use of freely accessible data allows for continuous updating and monitoring of this high-vulnerability region. The observed average subsidence rates were 3.3 mm per year with a maximum local subsidence of 5.3 cm per year. These results largely align with findings of previous studies and reflect similar spatial distributed subsidence patterns. Inundation risk awareness is enhanced by not only continued improved subsidence analysis, but also incorporating latest advancements in Digital Elevation Model (DEM) accuracy. This study compares local differences between traditionally used AW3D30 DEM with the CoastalDEM. Our findings indicate that although we identify lower than previously accepted elevations in the urban core, that stabilization of subsidence is observed in this same region.

Vertical Accuracy of Freely Available Global Digital Elevation Models (ASTER, AW3D30, MERIT, TanDEM-X, SRTM, and NASADEM)

Freely available global digital elevation models (DEMs) are important inputs for many research fields and applications. During the last decade, several global DEMs have been released based on satellite data. ASTER and SRTM are the most widely used DEMs, but the more recently released, AW3D30, TanDEM-X and MERIT, are being increasingly used. Many researchers have studied the quality of these DEM products in recent years. However, there has been no comprehensive and systematic evaluation of their quality over areas with variable topography and land cover conditions. To provide this comparison, we examined the accuracy of six freely available global DEMs (ASTER, AW3D30, MERIT, TanDEM-X, SRTM, and NASADEM) in four geographic regions with different topographic and land use conditions. We used local high-precision elevation models (Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Pleiades-1A) as reference models and all global models were resampled to reference model resolution (1m). In total, 608 million 1x1 m pixels were analyzed. To estimate the accuracy, we generated error rasters by subtracting each reference model from the corresponding global DEM and calculated descriptive statistics for this difference (e.g., median, mean, root-mean-square error (RMSE)). We also assessed the vertical accuracy as a function of the slope, slope aspect, and land cover. We found that slope had the strongest effect on DEM accuracy, with no relationship for slope aspect. The AW3D30 was the most robust and had the most stable performance in most of the tests and is therefore the best choice for an analysis of multiple geographic regions. SRTM and NASADEM also performed well where available, whereas NASADEM, as a successor of SRTM, showed only slight improvement in comparison to SRTM. MERIT and TanDEM-X also performed well despite their lower spatial resolution.

Accuracy Evaluation of Four Greenland Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Assessment of River Network Extraction

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of Greenland provide the basic data for studying the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS), but little research quantitatively evaluates and compares the accuracy of various Greenland DEMs. This study uses IceBridge elevation data to evaluate the accuracies of the the Greenland Ice Map Project (GIMP)1 DEM, GIMP2 DEM, TanDEM-X, and ArcticDEM in their corresponding time ranges. This study also analyzes the impact of DEM accuracy and resolution on the accuracy of river network extraction. The results show that (1) within the time range covered by each DEM, TanDEM-X with an RMSE of 5.60 m has higher accuracy than the other DEMs in terms of absolute height accuracy, while GIMP1 has the lowest accuracy among the four Greenland DEMs, with an RMSE of 14.34 m. (2) Greenland DEMs are affected by regional errors and interannual changes. The accuracy in areas with elevations above 2000 m is higher than that in areas with elevations below 2000 m, and better accuracy is observed in the north than in the south. The stability of the ArcticDEM product is higher than those of the other three DEM products, and its RMSE standard deviation over multiple years is only 0.14 m. Therefore, the errors caused by the applications of DEMs with longer time spans are smaller. GIMP1 performs in an opposite manner, with a standard deviation of 2.39 m. (3) The river network extracted from TanDEM-X is close to the real river network digitized from remote sensing images, with an accuracy of 50.78%. The river network extracted from GIMP1 exhibits the largest errors, with an accuracy of only 8.83%. This study calculates and compares the accuracy of four Greenland DEMs and indicates that TanDEM-X has the highest accuracy, adding quantitative studies on the accuracy evaluation of various Greenland DEMs. This study also compares the results of different DEM river network extractions, verifies the impact of DEM accuracy on the accuracy of the river network extraction results, and provides an explorable direction for the hydrological analysis of Greenland as a whole.

State of Science Assessment of Remote Sensing of Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands: Responding to an Operational Requirement

The purpose of this research was to develop a state of science synthesis of remote sensing technologies that could be used to track changes in Great Lakes coastal vegetation for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee. The mapping requirements included a minimum mapping unit (MMU) of either 2 × 2 m or 4 × 4 m, a digital elevation model (DEM) accuracy in x and y of 2 m, a “z” value or vertical accuracy of 1–5 cm, and an accuracy of 90% for the classes of interest. To determine the appropriate remote sensing sensors, we conducted an extensive literature review. The required high degree of accuracy resulted in the elimination of many of the remote sensing sensors used in other wetland mapping applications including synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical imagery with a resolution >1 m. Our research showed that remote sensing sensors that could at least partially detect the different types of wetland vegetation in this study were the following types: (1) advanced airborne “coastal” Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) with either a multispectral or a hyperspectral sensor, (2) colour-infrared aerial photography (airplane) with (optimum) 8 cm resolution, (3) colour-infrared unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography with vertical accuracy determination rated at 10 cm, (4) colour-infrared UAV photography with high vertical accuracy determination rated at 3–5 cm, (5) airborne hyperspectral imagery, and (6) very high-resolution optical satellite data with better than 1 m resolution.

Evaluation of the Vertical Accuracy of Open Global DEMs over Steep Terrain Regions Using ICESat Data: A Case Study over Hunan Province, China

The global digital elevation model (DEM) is important for various scientific applications. With the recently released TanDEM-X 90-m DEM and AW3D30 version 2.2, the open global or near-global coverage DEM datasets have been further expanded. However, the quality of these DEMs has not yet been fully characterized, especially in the application for regional scale studies. In this study, we assess the quality of five freely available global DEM datasets (SRTM-1 DEM, SRTM-3 DEM, ASTER GDEM2, AW3D30 DEM and TanDEM-X 90-m DEM) and one 30-m resampled TanDEM-X DEM (hereafter called TDX30) over the south-central Chinese province of Hunan. Then, the newly-released high precision ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2) altimetry points are introduced to evaluate the accuracy of these DEMs. Results show that the SRTM1 DEM offers the best quality with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 8.0 m, and ASTER GDEM2 has the worst quality with the RMSE of 10.1 m. We also compared the vertical accuracies of these DEMs with respect to different terrain morphological characteristics (e.g., elevation, slope and aspect) and land cover types. It reveals that the DEM accuracy decreases when the terrain elevation and slope value increase, whereas no relationship was found between DEM error and terrain aspect. Furthermore, the results show that the accuracy increases as the land cover type changes from vegetated to non-vegetated. Overall, the SRTM1 DEM, with high spatial resolution and high vertical accuracy, is currently the most promising dataset among these DEMs and it could, therefore, be utilized for the studies and applications requiring accurate DEMs.

Predicting Channel Conveyance and Characterizing Planform Using River Bathymetry via Satellite Image Compilation (RiBaSIC) Algorithm for DEM-Based Hydrodynamic Modeling

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are widely used as a proxy for bathymetric data and several studies have attempted to improve DEM accuracy for hydrodynamic (HD) modeling. Most of these studies attempted to quantitatively improve estimates of channel conveyance (assuming a non-braided morphology) rather than accounting for the actual channel planform. Accurate representation of river conveyance and planform in a DEM is critical to HD modeling and can be achieved with a combination of remote sensing (e.g., satellite image) and field data, such as water surface elevation (WSE). Therefore, the objectives of this study are (i) to develop an algorithm for predicting channel conveyance and characterizing planform via satellite images and in situ WSE and (ii) to estimate discharge using the predicted conveyance via an HD model. The algorithm is named River Bathymetry via Satellite Image Compilation (RiBaSIC) and uses Landsat satellite imagery, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM, Multi-Error-Removed Improved-Terrain (MERIT) DEM, and observed WSE. The algorithm is tested on four study areas along the Willamette River, Kushiyara River, Jamuna River, and Solimoes River. Channel slope and predicted hydraulic radius are subsequently estimated for approximating Manning’s roughness factor. Two-dimensional HD models using DEMs modified by the RiBaSIC algorithm and corresponding Manning’s roughness factors are employed for discharge estimation. The proposed algorithm can represent river planform and conveyance in single-channeled, meandering, wandering, and braided river reaches. Additionally, the HD models estimated discharge within 14–19% relative root mean squared error (RRMSE) in simulation of five years period.

DEM ACCURACY RESEARCH BASED ON UNMANNED AERIAL SURVEY DATA

Currently, digital elevation models (DEM) created by photogrammetric method based on unmanned aerial survey data are becoming an increasingly popular product. They are used in various areas of human activity related to modelling and analysis of terrain, namely: topography, engineering and geodetic surveys, surveying, archaeology, geomorphology, etc. The accuracy of digital surface and terrain models obtained by the photogrammetric method depends on the accuracy of aerial triangulation and dense point cloud from a number of overlapping images. In turn, the accuracy of the aerial triangulation is determined by the accuracy of the measurements of the tie points, GCP's / check points and the intersection geometry. When constructing a dense cloud using the SGM algorithm, the quality of the surface/terrain model depends not only on the accuracy of point identification, but also on filtering outliers and rejecting unreliable measurements. This article presents the results of evaluating the accuracy of creating a digital elevation model obtained by various unmanned aerial survey systems on a single test area.