Robust Change Vector Analysis (RCVA) for Multi-Sensor Very High Resolution Optical Satellite Data

Abstract

The analysis of rapid land cover/land use changes by means of remote sensing is often based on data acquired under varying and occasionally unfavorable conditions. In addition, such analyses frequently use data acquired by different sensor systems. These acquisitions often differ with respect to sun position and sensor viewing geometry which lead to characteristic effects in each image. These differences may have a negative impact on reliable change detection. Here, we propose an approach called Robust Change Vector Analysis (RCVA), aiming to mitigate these effects. RCVA is an improvement of the widely-used Change Vector Analysis (CVA), developed to account for pixel neighborhood effects. We used a RapidEye and Kompsat-2 cross-sensor change detection test to demonstrate the efficiency of RCVA. Our analysis showed that RCVA results in fewer false negatives as well as false positives when compared to CVA under similar test conditions. We conclude that RCVA is a powerful technique which can be utilized to reduce spurious changes in bi-temporal change detection analyses based on high- or very-high spatial resolution imagery. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Hannes Feilhauer
Hannes Feilhauer
Professor for Remote Sensing in Geo- and Ecosystem Research

Professor