Morphologic quality of DSMs based on optical and radar space imagery

Abstract

Digital Surface Models (DSMs) are representing the visible surface of the earth by the height corresponding to its X-, Y-location and height value Z. The quality of a DSM can be described by the accuracy and the morphologic details. Both depend upon the used input information, the used technique and the roughness of the terrain. The influence of the topographic details to the DSM quality is shown for the test fields Istanbul and Zonguldak. Zonguldak has a rough mountainous character with heights from sea level up to 1640m, while Istanbul is dominated by rolling hills going up to an elevation of 435m. DSMs from SPOT-5, the SRTM C-band height models and ASTER GDEM have been investigated. The DSMs have been verified with height models from large scale aerial photos being more accurate and including morphologic details. It was necessary to determine and respect shifts of the height models caused by datum problems and orientation of the height models. The DSM quality is analyzed depending upon the terrain inclination. The DSM quality differs for both test fields. The morphologic quality depends upon the point spacing of the analyzed DSMs and the terrain characteristics.