Code for the paper - Comparison of Digital Building Height Models Extracted from AW3D, TanDEM-X, ASTER, and SRTM Digital Surface Models over Yangon City. If you find this useful, please cite as - Misra, P.; Avtar, R.; Takeuchi, W. Comparison of Digital Building Height Models Extracted from AW3D, TanDEM-X, ASTER, and SRTM Digital Surface Models over Yangon City. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 2008. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/12/2008

Notes:

A) This is a Python based implementation of "ADVANCED DTM GENERATION FROM VERY HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE STEREO IMAGES" by Perko et al (2015). https://www.isprs-ann-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/II-3-W4/165/2015/isprsannals-II-3-W4-165-2015.pdf This code is a modification of Perko et al (2015) to suit coarse resolution DSM e.g. ASTER, AW3D30.

B) This runs on Python 2.7. Also download get_DSM.py and classDSM.py in the same folder. Make that folder as the active folder.

C) To run, type in terminal:

python get_nDSM.py --inputDSMpath 'path/for_trial.tif' --outputnDSMpath 'outfilesample.tif' --img_resolution 30 --neighborhood_kernel 300 --height_threshold 3 --slope_threshold 60

D) Help options:

python get_nDSM.py -h

E) Varibale decription

img_resolution is the resolution in meters. e.g. SRTM it should be 90. Regarding other optional arguments:

--inputDSMpath INPUTDSMPATH full path to DSM file which needs to be converted. e.g. \home\AW3D.tif

--outputnDSMpath OUTPUTNDSMPATH full path to output nDSM file after converted e.g. \home\AW3Dout.tif

--img_resolution IMG_RESOLUTION image resolution in meter

--neighborhood_kernel NEIGHBORHOOD_KERNEL how far (in meter) should the kernel size be considered. Recommended - Lower distance for higher resolution.

--height_threshold HEIGHT_THRESHOLD minimum height difference (in meter) between ground and building. Generally height of 1 storey building.

--slope_threshold SLOPE_THRESHOLD minimum slope between a building and ground pixel (in degrees)

F) Please also ensure that following modules are present: Rasterio #(Install by: pip install rasterio) Cv2 Scipy Numpy Math Matplotlib

I shall be grateful if you intend to use this code in a project. Kindly let me know your intended applications with this code. I will be happy to assist with problems/issues and feedback : ozprakharpooner at gmail dot com