A Knowledge-based Approach to Urban Feature Classification Using Aerial Imagery with Lidar Data

Ming-Jer Huang, Shiahn-Wern Shyue, Liang-Hwei Lee, Chih-Chung Kao
2008 Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing  
While the spatial resolution of remotely sensed data has improved, multispectral imagery is still not sufficient for urban classification. Problems include the difficulty in discriminating between trees and grass, the misclassification of buildings due to diverse roof compositions and shadow effects, and the misclassification of cars on roads. Recently, lidar (light detection and ranging) data have been integrated with remotely sensed data to obtain better classification results. In this study,
more » ... we first conducted maximum likelihood classification (MLC) experiments, a traditional pixelbased classification method, to identify features suitable for urban classification using lidar data and aerial imagery. The addition of lidar height data improved the overall accuracy by up to 28 and 18 percent, respectively, compared to cases with only red-green-blue (RGB) and multispectral imagery. To further improve classification, we propose a knowledgebased classification system (KBCS) that includes a three-level height, "asphalt road, vegetation, and non-vegetation" (A-V-N) classification rule-based scheme and knowledgebased correction (KBC). The proposed KBCS improved overall accuracy by 12 and 7 percent compared to maximum likelihood and object-based classification, respectively. PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 8 1473 Ming-Jer Huang and Shiahn-Wern Shyue are with the
doi:10.14358/pers.74.12.1473 fatcat:risqy4ib7zffvhfzi4pdxmv674