Template Matching in Support of Generalisation of Rural Buildings

Abstract

A range of methodologies has been proposed to derive generalised forms of buildings at coarser scales. In this paper, we explore the use of simple pattern matching algorithms in order to select from a set of templates, a building outline that best characterises a more detailed form. This template matching process is used to simplify the form of rural buildings (farmsteads) in Danish mapping, and is currently a manual task within the National Mapping Agency of Denmark (KMS). This research has explored the feasibility of automating this approach, and reports on its implementation, and provides an evaluation. The challenge in pattern matching is to minimise the misidentification of patterns (type I error) and failures to find any match (type II error) in the assignment of templates. The initial set of results was very encouraging.