Mapping Contents Analysis of WorldView-2 VHR Satellite Imagery Using Cadastral Information

Abstract. Very High-resolution (VHR) optical satellites with a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 1m and less for nadir view began with IKONOS in 1999. There are now several VHR optical satellites. A WorldView-2 image compared the advantage of higher-resolution space images for mapping purposes with some lower-resolution VHR images. The orbit altitude of WorldView-2 (WV2) was changed from 767km to 680km in 2011, reducing the GSD in the nadir view from 0.46m to 0.41m. The WV2 image was taken at an incidence angle of 33.3°, resulting in a GSD of 0.49 m times 0.59 m, or 0.54 m on average.

The information content analysis confirmed the generally required production scale of 0.05 to 0.1 mm GSD at map scale. This corresponds to a topographic map scale of 1:10,000 for 1 m and 1:5000 for 0.5 m GSD images. This is also based on test fields in İstanbul, Adalar district. The required mapping detail that could be identified using with the VHR space images is dominated by the ground resolution available as the ground sampling distance (GSD). WV2 imagery has proven to help update the GIS and cadastral database.