QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF 3D BUILDING DATA Devrim Akca* (akca@isikun.edu.tr) Isik University, Istanbul, Turkey Mark Freeman (Mark.Freeman@ordnancesurvey.co.uk) Isabel Sargent (Isabel.Sargent@ordnancesurvey.co.uk) Ordnance Survey Research, Great Britain Armin Gruen (agruen@geod.baug.ethz.ch) Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich *Formerly at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich (Extended version of a paper presented at the International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF 09), held in New Orleans from 26th to 28th January 2009) Abstract Three-dimensional building models are often now produced from lidar and photogrammetric data. The quality control of these models is a relevant issue both from the scientific and practical points of view. This work presents a method for the quality control of such models. The input model (3D building data) is co-registered to the verification data using a 3D surface matching method. The 3D surface matching evaluates the Euclidean distances between the verification and input data-sets. The Euclidean distances give appropriate metrics for the 3D model quality. This metric is independent of the method of data capture. The proposed method can favourably address the reference system accuracy, positional accuracy and completeness. Three practical examples of the method are provided for demonstration. Keywords: 3D building model, 3D comparison, lidar, point cloud, quality assessment, surface co-registration Introduction For about 20 years, 3D city modelling has been an important research and development issue in geomatics. Many different techniques have been proposed, especially for reality-based concepts. Reviews can be found in Mayer (1999), Gru ¨n (2000), Baltsavias et al. (2001), Baltsavias and Gruen (2003) and Baltsavias (2004). Three-dimensional city models have become one of the most significant products of the geospatial industry, required as part of many new applications (Gruen, 2001). Reality-based models are now produced using a variety of different source data and sensors (maps, GIS data, cameras of different types, lidar), operating The Photogrammetric Record 25(132): 339–355 (December 2010) Ó 2010 The Authors. The Photogrammetric Record Ó 2010 The Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA.