IMPROVING SPATIAL INFORMATION EXTRACTION FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES USING VERY-HIGH-RESOLUTION DATA – GEOMETRICAL ASPECTS

The purpose of the presented research project is to investigate how present-day EO-technology can support local and regional decision-making, particularly in Belgium, and to develop prototype versions of value-added products that fulfil some of the actual information needs, as expressed by Belgian authorities at the local and at the regional level. To accomplish this goal the proposal addresses both technical and user-oriented issues, and builds on the experience of five research teams, each with its own background and particular know-how. The most important objectives of the project are: • to define optimal methods for improved spatial information extraction from high- and very-high resolution data, based on innovative processing techniques; • to identify useful EO-applications at the level of local and regional decision making that are made possible by applying the information extraction methods that will be developed; in this case especially 3D information • to define and develop value-added core data products that will support these applications, and that can be consulted with easy-to-use, widely available IT-tools (CD-ROM, Internet, …). One of the technical research modules is focussing on the geometrical aspects of VHR data processing. In terms of spatial resolution, VHR data have the required level of detail to resolve individual objects in the landscape, in a similar way as airborne data. As such, they have the potential of becoming a useful data source for the extraction of detailed, object-related information, and for th