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ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 09, No. 05
October 2016, P.P.2172-2181
#02090548 Copyright ©2016 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.
Sub-Graph Matching-Based Building Changes Detection Using
High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images
FENG-HUA HUANG
1-5
, ZHENG-YUAN MAO
3-5
AND WEN-ZAO SHI
3-5
1
Postdoctoral Programme of Electronic Science and Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
2
Yango College, Fuzhou 350015, China
3
Key Lab of Spatial Data Mining & Information Sharing of Ministry of Education, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou
350002, China
4
National Engineering Research Centre of Geospatial Information Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou
350002, China
5
Spatial Information Engineering Research Centre of Fujian Province, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002,
China
Email: fenghuait@sina.com
Abstract: High-resolution remote sensing (HRRS) images of urban regions have large viewing angle variations,
significant noise jamming, and obvious building shadows. Hence, deviation and distortion usually occur to the
buildings in HRRS images collected at different phases (multi-temporal HRRS images). The traditional
detection methodology is ineffective for accurate and efficient building changes detection in multi-temporal
HRRS images. In order to address these problems, this paper proposes a sub-graph matching-based building
changes detection (SGMBCD) scheme. First, this paper presents a Graphcut-based buildings extracting (GCBE)
method from multi-temporal HRRS images. Next, a sub-graph matching-based registration (SGMR) method is
devised to register the previously extracted buildings from multi-temporal HRRS images and to obtain matched
ASIFT feature point pairs and singular points. Finally, singular points and overlay analysis-based method
(SPOA) is developed to detect building changes in multi-temporal HRRS images. The types of building changes
included in this paper are changes (e.g., erection, dismantling, repairing, and reconstruction) and non-changes.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SGMBCD scheme, it is compared with five typical
algorithms (i.e., BCDBPM, SDBBCD, BCDBICO, NCUTBCD, and RSMBCD) on three sets of multi-temporal
WorldView2 test images. Experimental results show that in comparison with the other methods, SGMBCD can
effectively address the challenging problem of building changes detection in multi-temporal HRRS images. The
average recall ratio, precision ratio and F value is 91.47%, 86.49% and 88.91% respectively, and the average
time consumption is 60.3 s. This demonstrates SGMBCD can detect building changes in multi-temporal HRRS
images accurately and efficiently.
Keywords: High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images, Sub-graph Matching, Building Changes Detection,
Overlay Analysis.
1. Introduction
Building changes detection via remote sensing images
refers to the technique of detecting building changes
on the ground using multi-temporal remote sensing
data. Building changes include reconstruction and
extension due to land use and coverage variation, as
well as collapse and damage due to natural disasters
[1]. Building changes detection is of great
significance in urban planning, GIS data upgrading,
smart cities, and military surveillance [2,3]. Currently,
the data source that underlies building changes
detection is primarily high-resolution remote sensing
(HRRS) images. Although HRRS images provide the
benefit of building recognition, the images are subject
to large angle variations, significant noise jamming,
and apparent building shadows. Deviations and
distortions usually occur to the same building in
multi-temporal HRRS images, which makes it more
difficult to detect building changes in HRRS images
than those of other objects on the ground, such as
water bodies, vegetation, and roads. Other factors that
added to the difficulty of building changes detection
include: lack of directly relevant 3D data, possibility
of the same object exhibiting different spectrums,
diversity in building appearance, and complexity of
the scene surrounding buildings in urban areas[1-
4].As a result, traditional methods cannot accurately
and efficiently detect building changes in multi-
temporal HRRS images. Fruitful studies have been
done worldwide on this issue. Typical algorithms
include the probabilistic model method [5], shadow
analysis method [6], inter-class overlay analysis
method [7], graph segmentation method [8], and
image matching method [9]. These algorithms have
shortcomings in terms of self-adaption, accuracy and
efficiency, especially for HRRS mages with complex
backgrounds. In order to address these problems, this
paper proposes a sub-graph matching-based building