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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9050</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-101-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Efficient Extraction and Specification-Compliant Optimization of Railway Alignment Parameters from UAV LiDAR Point Clouds</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Han</surname>
<given-names>Zhaochen</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ge</surname>
<given-names>Xuming</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Min</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hu</surname>
<given-names>Han</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Faculty of Geosciences and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, 611756, Chengdu, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>03</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XI-2-2026</volume>
<fpage>101</fpage>
<lpage>108</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Zhaochen Han et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/101/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-101-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/101/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-101-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/101/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-101-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/101/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-101-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The rapid acquisition of high-precision parametric railway alignment is a fundamental prerequisite for intelligent railway construction and maintenance. Traditional measurement techniques and alignment fitting methods heavily rely on manual operations, often resulting in inefficiency, high costs, and insufficient accuracy control. To address these challenges, this study proposes an automated method for extracting and optimizing railway alignment from UAV LiDAR point clouds. Initially, the track centerline is extracted by leveraging the geometric smoothness of the railway and the structural characteristics of the track. A multi-constraint energy model integrating distance, orientation, and curvature is constructed to fit the geometric parameters of alignment elements, thereby providing high-quality initial values for subsequent alignment engineering parameter optimization. Finally, a global optimization strategy based on the simulated annealing algorithm is applied to jointly refine the engineering parameters of the standardized alignment composition, ensuring strict compliance with railway design specification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can efficiently and robustly extract high-precision alignment parameters with well-defined engineering semantics from complex railway point clouds, thereby providing reliable technical support for intelligent construction and full lifecycle management of railway systems.</p>
</abstract>
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