Optical and SAR data integration for automatic change pattern detection

Abstract. Automatic change pattern mapping in urban and sub-urban area is important but challenging due to the diversity of urban land use pattern. With multi-sensor imagery, it is possible to generate multidimensional unique information of Earth surface features that allow developing a relationship between a response of each feature to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical sensors to track the change automatically. Thus, a SAR and optical data integration framework for change detection and a relationship for automatic change pattern detection were developed. It was carried out in three steps: (i) Computation of indicators from SAR and optical images, namely: normalized difference ratio (NDR) from multi-temporal SAR images and the normalized difference vegetation index difference (ΔNDVI) from multi-temporal optical images, (ii) computing the change magnitude image from NDR and ΔNDVI and delineating the change area and (iii) the development of an empirical relationship, for automatic change pattern detection. The experiment was carried out in an outskirts part of Ho Chi Minh City, one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The empirical relationship between the response of surface feature to optical and SAR imagery has successfully delineated six changed classes in a very complex urban sprawl area that was otherwise impossible with multi-spectral imagery. The improvement of the change detection results by making use of the unique information on both sensors, optical and SAR, is also noticeable with a visual inspection and the kappa index was increased by 0.13 (0.75 to 0.88) in comparison to only optical images.