CARTOGRAPHIC FEATURES EXTRACTION METHODOLOGY IN REMOTE SENSING IMAGES AIMING AT THE CARTOGRAPHIC UPDATE OF ALLOTMENTS

We evaluate the use of high-resolution microwave satellite images from TerraSAR-X for mapping snow-patch distribution in ice-free areas of the maritime Antarctic (King George Island). The imagery was acquired simultaneously to ground truthing of snow. Image classification resulted in very high accuracy when discriminating between snow, water and bare ground. The method provides a solution for characterizing the snowmelt patterns in the ice-free areas of the Antarctic Peninsula.

A method for semi-automatic landslide detection and mapping is presented and tested using a very high-resolution satellite image, sensed 3 days after a major damaging landslide event that occurred in Madeira Island (20 February 2010). The testing is developed in a 15 km² wide area, where 95 % of the number of landslides scars is detected by this approach.