Abrupt change detection on multitemporal remote sensing images: a statistical overview of methodologies applied on real cases

In the framework of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", charter calls are made to the signing parties every time a natural or technological hazard occurs. Consequently, space data are provided by the partners in order to help local authorities to assess the damages, organize and optimize the use of available resources. In such cases, abrupt change detection algorithms are required and numerous methods have been proposed by the geoscience and remote sensing (GRS) community. In this paper statistics measured on charter calls are compared to statistics measured on change detection methods published in the literature. These statistics aim to give the image processing community a better understanding of the needs and challenges faced in the case of real life disaster scenarios.