UPDATING MAPS USING HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGERY

Abstract. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the most dynamic countries of the world. We have witnessed a very rapid urban development's which are altering Kingdom’s landscape on daily basis. In recent years a substantial increase in urban populations is observed which results in the formation of large cities. Considering this fast paced growth, it has become necessary to monitor these changes, in consideration with challenges faced by aerial photography projects. It has been observed that data obtained through aerial photography has a lifecycle of 5-years because of delay caused by extreme weather conditions and dust storms which acts as hindrances or barriers during aerial imagery acquisition, which has increased the costs of aerial survey projects. All of these circumstances require that we must consider some alternatives that can provide us easy and better ways of image acquisition in short span of time for achieving reliable accuracy and cost effectiveness. The approach of this study is to conduct an extensive comparison between different resolutions of data sets which include: Orthophoto of (10 cm) GSD, Stereo images of (50 cm) GSD and Stereo images of (1 m) GSD, for map updating. Different approaches have been applied for digitizing buildings, roads, tracks, airport, roof level changes, filling stations, buildings under construction, property boundaries, mosques buildings and parking places.