SINGLE VERSUS STEREO ERS-1 SAR IMAGERY FOR PLANIMETRIC FEATURES EXTRACTION

This Letter compares two conventional methods for the extraction of pl animetric features: the monoscopic method, using an image and a digita l elevation model to generate an ortho-image; and the stereoscopic met hod, using two images for the three-dimensional reconstruction of the stereoscopic model of the terrain. Feature extraction then occurs in m ono or stereoscopic viewing, depending on the method used. When compar ed with the topographic data, accuracies of the lake shoreline extract ion from ERS-1 SAR images show 22 m versus 17 m root mean square accur acies with 66 per cent confidence for the monoscopic and stereoscopic methods, respectively. More consistency is also achieved with the ster eoscopic method.