A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data

Building height is important information in disaster management and damage assessment. It is also a key parameter in studies such as population modeling and urbanization. Relatively few studies have been conducted on extracting building height in rural areas using imagery from China’s Gaofen-7 satel...

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Main Authors: Mingbo Liu, Ping Wang, Kailong Hu, Changjun Gu, Shengyue Jin, Lu Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-09-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/18/6076
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author Mingbo Liu
Ping Wang
Kailong Hu
Changjun Gu
Shengyue Jin
Lu Chen
author_facet Mingbo Liu
Ping Wang
Kailong Hu
Changjun Gu
Shengyue Jin
Lu Chen
author_sort Mingbo Liu
collection DOAJ
description Building height is important information in disaster management and damage assessment. It is also a key parameter in studies such as population modeling and urbanization. Relatively few studies have been conducted on extracting building height in rural areas using imagery from China’s Gaofen-7 satellite (GF-7). In this study, we developed a method combining photogrammetry and deep learning to extract building height using GF-7 data in the rural area of Pingquan in northern China. The deep learning model DELaMa was proposed for digital surface model (DSM) editing based on the Large Mask Inpainting (LaMa) architecture. It not only preserves topographic details but also reasonably predicts the topography inside the building mask. The percentile value of the normalized digital surface model (nDSM) in the building footprint was taken as the building height. The extracted building heights in the study area are highly consistent with the reference building heights measured from the ICESat-2 LiDAR point cloud, with an R<sup>2</sup> of 0.83, an MAE of 1.81 m and an RMSE of 2.13 m for all validation buildings. Overall, the proposed method in this paper helps to promote the use of satellite data in large-scale building height surveys, especially in rural areas.
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spelling doaj-art-8b40ffa1839248ceb9a9bd40db8258af2025-08-20T01:55:51ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202024-09-012418607610.3390/s24186076A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 DataMingbo Liu0Ping Wang1Kailong Hu2Changjun Gu3Shengyue Jin4Lu Chen5National Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaNational Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaNational Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaNational Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaNational Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaNational Disaster Reduction Center of China, Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100124, ChinaBuilding height is important information in disaster management and damage assessment. It is also a key parameter in studies such as population modeling and urbanization. Relatively few studies have been conducted on extracting building height in rural areas using imagery from China’s Gaofen-7 satellite (GF-7). In this study, we developed a method combining photogrammetry and deep learning to extract building height using GF-7 data in the rural area of Pingquan in northern China. The deep learning model DELaMa was proposed for digital surface model (DSM) editing based on the Large Mask Inpainting (LaMa) architecture. It not only preserves topographic details but also reasonably predicts the topography inside the building mask. The percentile value of the normalized digital surface model (nDSM) in the building footprint was taken as the building height. The extracted building heights in the study area are highly consistent with the reference building heights measured from the ICESat-2 LiDAR point cloud, with an R<sup>2</sup> of 0.83, an MAE of 1.81 m and an RMSE of 2.13 m for all validation buildings. Overall, the proposed method in this paper helps to promote the use of satellite data in large-scale building height surveys, especially in rural areas.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/18/6076GF-7 imagebuilding heightrural areasdeep learning
spellingShingle Mingbo Liu
Ping Wang
Kailong Hu
Changjun Gu
Shengyue Jin
Lu Chen
A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
Sensors
GF-7 image
building height
rural areas
deep learning
title A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
title_full A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
title_fullStr A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
title_full_unstemmed A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
title_short A Method for Extracting High-Resolution Building Height Information in Rural Areas Using GF-7 Data
title_sort method for extracting high resolution building height information in rural areas using gf 7 data
topic GF-7 image
building height
rural areas
deep learning
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/18/6076
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