Object-oriented classification of land use in urban areas applying very high resolution satellite data

Project Leader: Dr. Klaus Steinnocher

PhD Thesis T. BAUER - Technical University Vienna

Beginning: 10.1997

End: 07.2001

The availability of the new very high resolution satellite imagery will offer a wide range of new applications in the field of remote sensing. These image data sets will facilitate for the first time the potential to map urban areas at a spatial scale previously unattainable. Due to its complex structures the analysis of urban areas will highly profit from the advanced sensors with a spatial resolution of less than 5 meters. Information about actual land use is an important task for the management and planning in urban areas. The traditional method to gain this information is based on the visual interpretation of aerial photographs. High resolution satellite data will be an alternative for updating and maintaining cartographic and geographic databases at reduced costs.
To take full benefit of the potential of these data new processing techniques have to be applied. The aim of the research is to formalise the visual interpretation procedure in order to automate the whole process. The assumption underlying this approach is that the land use functions can be distinguished on the basis of the differences in spatial distribution and pattern of land cover forms. Therefore a two-stage classification procedure is applied. In a first stage a land cover map is produced. In a second stage the morphological properties and spatial patterns of the land cover objects are analysed with the Structural Analysing and Mapping System leading to a characterisation and description of distinct urban land use categories. This information is then used for building a rule system that is implemented in a new commercial software tool called eCognition. An object-oriented classifier applies the rules to the land cover objects resulting in the required land use map. The potential of this method is demonstrated in a case study using IKONOS data covering a part of the metropolitan area of Vienna.