Combining GIS and InSAR data for 3D building reconstruction

Today space-borne high resolution SAR sensors (e.g., TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, SAR-Lupe or Cosmo-SkyMed) provide SAR images up to spatial resolutions of 1-3m and even better in spotlight modes. Hence, one major issue of these missions is the development of methods to automatically derive detailed cartographic information from their data. Especially, the analysis of rural and urban areas is on demand in case of disasters (e.g., earthquakes), where active remote sensing systems are highly attractive. Here, an important issue is the development of automatic methods for damage assessment or change detection, in general. For that it is advisable to combine existing GIS data with current SAR data. In this paper an approach for 3D building reconstruction is presented, based on information fusion by utilizing GIS and InSAR data. Thereby, the GIS data are providing the 2D building footprints and the acquired InSAR data the height information. An InSAR simulation step and the subsequent assessment between the real and simulated InSAR phase data enables the extraction of the current building shape.