Techniques for Estimating the Positional and Thematic Accuracy of Remotely Sensed Products

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to review standard methods for assessing the quality control of cartographic products in the context of remote sensing. A further aim is to present a methodology to assess the positional accuracy of spatial databases using generic features (and their spatial distribution) within the image in the validation phase, and also describe a methodology that specifically takes into account spatial pattern of errors of omission and commission, in order to present the user with an indication of the reliability of the pixel label assignments. Three remotely sensed images were used in this study, acquired by the satellites Landsat, CBERS and SPOT respectively. Results show that considerable amount of research and development needs to be accomplished before the spatial characterization of positional ant thematic accuracy associated with remote sensing can be adequately reported in standardized format and legends. Several techniques for the quality control of spatial databases using generic features are adapted to the context of remote sensing, however, one drawback for some of these approaches is the difficult to obtaining homologous points in both representations. Alternative techniques to overtake such limitations are also discussed