Classification of basic roof types based on VHR optical data and digital elevation model

In the frame of seismic vulnerability assessment in urban areas, it is very important to estimate the nature of the roof of every building and, in particular, to make the difference between flat roofs and gable ones. In order to perform this tedious task automatically on a large scale, remote sensing data provide a useful solution. In this study, we use simultaneously very high resolution panchromatic data, and an accurate digital elevation model. The fusion of these two modalities enables the extraction of two mixed features. Based on these features the classification between the two considered classes becomes a simple linearly separable problem.