An efficient algorithm for detection of road-like structures in satellite images

Road networks are important features of satellite imagery. The main contribution of the present road detection method consists of an effective enhancement technique and an efficient segmentation technique that removes non-road pixels step by step from the image where parameters involved: in each step images are determined by the sensor characteristics (like spatial resolution and spectral range) of the satellite. Also, the segmentation process depends not only on the road contrast but also on the road length. Thus, a low contrast but long road segment does not get removed. We have tested the algorithm on a number of images from IRS and SPOT satellites and the results are satisfactory.

道路网络是卫星图像的重要特征。当前道路检测方法的主要贡献包括一种有效的增强技术和一种高效的分割技术，该技术逐步从图像中去除非道路像素，其中涉及的参数：在每一步中，图像由卫星的传感器特性（如空间分辨率和光谱范围）决定。此外，分割过程不仅取决于道路对比度，还取决于道路长度。因此，对比度低但较长的路段不会被去除。我们已经在来自印度遥感卫星（IRS）和法国地球观测卫星（SPOT）的一些图像上测试了该算法，结果令人满意。