A novel method for improved DEM deformation detection

Abstract

The deformation detection method without control points is one of the key techniques for multi-temporal digital elevation model (DEM) analyses, and represents an attractive and difficult research topic. A novel method for improved DEM deformation detection is proposed in this paper, based on the Least Z-Difference algorithm with differential model (DM- LZD). In the new method, an additional parameter is employed to improve the weighting function for the observations in the matching algorithm. Three indexes are designed to give an in-depth and quantitative analysis of the performance, according to the possible two types of errors occurring in the weighting function. The experimental result, based on the simulated dataset, shows that with an appropriate additional parameter it will achieve a better balance between the deformation-detecting ability and the matchingaccuracy, and so generates better performance.

Keywords:

• DEM matching
• differential model
• deformation detection
• performance index