Use of high resolution optical and radar imagery for intelligence and situational awareness in urban areas

We have used high resolution optical satellite stereo data to generate a digital surface model containing building heights, so that 3-dimensional information is available for the purpose of urban situational awareness. In addition we have applied change detection techniques to Radarsat fine beam imagery with a resolution of 10 meters to find infrastructural changes and to assess damages in order to obtain up-to-date infrastructural information. We show that the changes obtained from the radar data can be characterized using other data, such as high resolution optical imagery, maps, and data from GIS. Furthermore we show how these results can be combined with a digital surface model to produce an actual description of the urban area needed for urban situational awareness.