Road and Tunnel Extraction from SPOT Satellite Images Using Neural Networks

Abstract

Road extraction from the satellite images can be used in producing road maps as well as managing and developing geospatial databases. In this work, the extraction of roads from SPOT satellite images using artificial neural network has been studied. Then the location of tunnel is extracted from image using digital elevation information. Also it is tried to enhance the precision of the road extraction method using spectral information as well as texture and morphology. The method was implemented on SPOT satellite images of Tabrizand Miyaneh (Iran). The results of this research indicate that it would be possible to promote the precision of road extraction by using texture and morphology in image classifycation using neural networks. Finally the location of tunnel was extracted by digital elevation information. Junctions of roads and mountains have high potential in locating the tunnel. For this reason, in this study, the junctions of roads and mountains were also detected and used.