New methodologies for precise building boundary extraction from LiDAR data and high resolution image

Abstract

PurposeLight Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) offers a fast and effective way to acquire DSM and extract ground objects such as building, trees and so on. However, it is difficult to extract sharp and precise building boundary from LiDAR data, because its ground sample distance (GSD) is often worse than that of high resolution image. Recently, fusion of LiDAR and high resolution image becomes a promising approach to extract precise boundary. To find the correct and precise boundary, the aim of this paper is to present a series of novel algorithms to improve the quality.Design/methodology/approachTo find the correct and precise boundary, this paper presents a series of novel algorithms to improve the quality. At first, a progressive algorithm is presented to register LiDAR data and images; second, a modified adaptive TIN algorithm is presented to filter ground point, where a region growth method is applied in the adaptive TIN algorithm; third, a novel criterion based on the density, connectivity and distribution of point cluster is developed to distinguish trees point; fourth, a novel method based on the height difference between neighbor points is employed to extract coarse boundaries; at last, a knowledge based rule is put forward to identify correct building boundary from parallel edges.FindingsThorough experiments, it is conducted that: the registration results are accurate and reliable; filtered ground points has good quality, without missing or redundancy; all tree clusters bigger than one grid are detected, and points of walls and edges are eliminated with the new criterion; detected edges exactly locate at real building boundaries, and statistics show the detection correctness is 98 percent, and the detection completeness is 95 percent.Originality/valueAll results prove that precise boundary can be extracted with fusion of LiDAR and high resolution image.