Journal of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science ›› 2022, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (4): 1-9.doi: 10.11947/j.JGGS.2022.0401

• Special Issue •     Next Articles

An Adaptive and Image-guided Fusion for Stereo Satellite Image Derived Digital Surface Models

Hessah ALBANWAN1(),Rongjun QIN2,3,4,5()   

  1. 1. Department of Civil Engineering, Kuwait University,Kuwait 72504, Kuwait
    2. Geospatial Data Analytics Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA
    3. Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA
    4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA
    5. Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA
  • Received:2022-06-15 Accepted:2022-09-15 Online:2022-12-20 Published:2023-03-15
  • Contact: Rongjun QIN E-mail:Qin.324@osu.edu
  • About author:Hessah ALBANWAN, E-mail: Hessah.albanwan@ku.edu.kw

Abstract:

The accuracy of Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generated using stereo matching methods varies due to the varying acquisition conditions and configuration parameters of stereo images. It has been a good practice to fuse these DSMs generated from various stereo pairs to achieve enhanced, in which multiple DSMs are combined through computational approaches into a single, more accurate, and complete DSM. However, accurately characterizing detailed objects and their boundaries still present a challenge since most boundary-ware fusion methods still struggle to achieve sharpened depth discontinuities due to the averaging effects of different DSMs. Therefore, we propose a simple and efficient adaptive image-guided DSM fusion method that applies k-means clustering on small patches of the orthophoto to guide the pixel-level fusion adapted to the most consistent and relevant elevation points. The experiment results show that our proposed method has outperformed comparing methods in accuracy and the ability to preserve sharpened depth edges.

Key words: Digital Surface Model (DSM); DSM Fusion; adaptive fusion; satellite stereo images