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ABSTRACT:Radiometric correction (RC) of the airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) intensity data has been studied in the last few years. The physical model of the RC relies on the use of the laser range equation to convert the intensity values into the spectral reflectance of the reflected objects. A number of recent studies investigated the effects of the LiDAR system parameters (i.e. range, incidence angle, beam divergence, aperture size, automatic gain control, etc.) on the results of the RC process. Nevertheless, the condition of the object surface (slope and aspect) plays a crucial role in modelling the recorded intensity data. The variation of the object surface slope and aspect affects the direction as well as the magnitude of the reflected laser pulse which makes significant influence on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function. In this paper, the effects of the angle of reflection, which is the angle between the surface normal and the incidence laser pulse, on the RC results of the airborne LiDAR intensity data is investigated. A practical approach is proposed to compute the angle of reflection using the digital surface model (DSM) derived from the LiDAR data. Then, a comparison between the results of the intensity data after RC using the scan angle and RC using the angle of reflection is carried out. The comparison is done by converting the intensity data into equivalent image data and evaluating the classification results of the intensity image data. Preliminary findings show that: 1) the variance-to-mean ratio of the land cover features are significantly reduced while using the angle of reflection in the RC process; 2) 4% of accuracy improvement can be achieved using the intensity data corrected with the scan angle. The accuracy improvement increases to 8% when using the intensity data corrected with the angle of reflection. The research work practically justifies the use of the reflection angle in the RC process of airborne LiDAR intensity data.

ABSTRACT:Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems are remote sensing techniques used mainly for terrain surface modelling. LiDAR sensors record the distance between the sensor and the targets (range data) with a capability to record the strength of the backscatter energy reflected from the targets (intensity data). The LiDAR sensors use the near-infrared spectrum range which provides high separability in the reflected energy by the target. This phenomenon is investigated to use the LiDAR intensity data for land-cover classification. The goal of this paper is to investigate and evaluates the use of different image classification techniques applied on LiDAR intensity data for land cover classification. The two techniques proposed are: a) Maximum likelihood classifier used as pixelbased classification technique; and b) Image segmentation used as object-based classification technique. A study area covers an urban district in Burnaby, British Colombia, Canada, is selected to test the different classification techniques for extracting four feature classes: buildings, roads and parking areas, trees, and low vegetation (grass) areas, from the LiDAR intensity data. Generally, the results show that LiDAR intensity data can be used for land cover classification. An overall accuracy of 63.5% can be achieved using the pixel-based classification technique. The overall accuracy of the results is improved to 68% using the objectbased classification technique. Further research is underway to investigate different criteria for segmentation process and to refine the design of the object-based classification algorithm.

ABSTRACT:Airborne Laser Scanning systems with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology is one of the fast and accurate 3D point data acquisition techniques. Generating accurate digital terrain and/or surface models (DTM/DSM) is the main application of collecting LiDAR range data. Recently, LiDAR range and intensity data have been used for land cover classification applications. Data range and Intensity, (strength of the backscattered signals measured by the LiDAR systems), are affected by the flying height, the ground elevation, scanning angle and the physical characteristics of the objects surface. These effects may lead to uneven distribution of point cloud or some gaps that may affect the classification process. Researchers have investigated the conversion of LiDAR range point data to raster image for terrain modelling. Interpolation techniques have been used to achieve the best representation of surfaces, and to fill the gaps between the LiDAR footprints. Interpolation methods are also investigated to generate LiDAR range and intensity image data for land cover classification applications. In this paper, different approach has been followed to classifying the LiDAR data (range and intensity) for land cover mapping. The methodology relies on the classification of the point cloud data based on their range and intensity and then converted the classified points into raster image. The gaps in the data are filled based on the classes of the nearest neighbour. Land cover maps are produced using two approaches using: a) the conventional raster image data based on point interpolation; and b) the proposed point data classification. A study area covering an urban district in Burnaby, British Colombia, Canada, is selected to compare the results of the two approaches. Five different land cover classes can be distinguished in that area: buildings, roads and parking areas, trees, low vegetation (grass), and bare soil. The results show that an improvement of around 10% in the classification results can be achieved by using the proposed approach.