{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T11:34:17Z","timestamp":1777894457807,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,9]],"date-time":"2020-05-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1588982400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>High-resolution stereo and multi-view imagery are used for digital surface model (DSM) derivation over large areas for numerous applications in topography, cartography, geomorphology, and 3D surface modelling. Dense image matching is a key component in 3D reconstruction and mapping, although the 3D reconstruction process encounters difficulties for water surfaces, areas with no texture or with a repetitive pattern appearance in the images, and for very small objects. This study investigates the capabilities and limitations of space-borne very high resolution imagery, specifically Pl\u00e9iades (0.70 m) and WorldView-3 (0.31 m) imagery, with respect to the automatic point cloud reconstruction of small isolated objects. For this purpose, single buildings, vehicles, and trees were analyzed. The main focus is to quantify their detectability in the photogrammetrically-derived DSMs by estimating their heights as a function of object type and size. The estimated height was investigated with respect to the following parameters: building length and width, vehicle length and width, and tree crown diameter. Manually measured object heights from the oriented images were used as a reference. We demonstrate that the DSM-based estimated height of a single object strongly depends on its size, and we quantify this effect. Starting from very small objects, which are not elevated against their surroundings, and ending with large objects, we obtained a gradual increase of the relative heights. For small vehicles, buildings, and trees (lengths &lt;7 pixels, crown diameters &lt;4 pixels), the Pl\u00e9iades-derived DSM showed less than 20% or none of the actual object\u2019s height. For large vehicles, buildings, and trees (lengths &gt;14 pixels, crown diameters &gt;7 pixels), the estimated heights were higher than 60% of the real values. In the case of the WorldView-3 derived DSM, the estimated height of small vehicles, buildings, and trees (lengths &lt;16 pixels, crown diameters &lt;8 pixels) was less than 50% of their actual height, whereas larger objects (lengths &gt;33 pixels, crown diameters &gt;16 pixels) were reconstructed at more than 90% in height.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20092695","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,11]],"date-time":"2020-05-11T12:26:30Z","timestamp":1589199990000},"page":"2695","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":25,"title":["Potential of Pl\u00e9iades and WorldView-3 Tri-Stereo DSMs to Represent Heights of Small Isolated Objects"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8995-289X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana-Maria","family":"Loghin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Technische Universit\u00e4t Wien, Wiedner Hauptstra\u00dfe 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Johannes","family":"Otepka-Schremmer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Technische Universit\u00e4t Wien, Wiedner Hauptstra\u00dfe 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2348-7929","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Norbert","family":"Pfeifer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Technische Universit\u00e4t Wien, Wiedner Hauptstra\u00dfe 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2102","DOI":"10.1117\/1.1496111","article-title":"Comparison of automated Digital Elevation Model extraction results using along-track aster and across-track Spot stereo images","volume":"41","author":"Toutin","year":"2002","journal-title":"Opt. Eng."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"366","article-title":"Precision rectification of high resolution satellite imagery without ephemeris data","volume":"3","author":"Sadeghian","year":"2001","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Astrium (2012). Pl\u00e9iades Imagery\u2014User Guide v 2.0, Astrium."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"DigitalGlobe (2019, November 15). Digitalglobe Core Imagery Products Guide. Available online: http:\/\/www.digitalglobe.com\/downloads\/DigitalGlobeCoreImageryProductsGuide.pdf."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"553","article-title":"3D capabilities of Pleiades satellite","volume":"39-B3","author":"Bernard","year":"2012","journal-title":"Xxii ISPRS Congr. Tech. Comm. Iii"},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"287","article-title":"Evaluation of Pleiades-1A triplet on Trento testfield","volume":"40-1","author":"Poli","year":"2013","journal-title":"ISPRS Hannover Workshop"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.5194\/isprsannals-II-3-103-2014","article-title":"Assessment of the mapping potential of Pl\u00e9iades stereo and triplet data","volume":"2","author":"Perko","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alabi, T., Haertel, M., and Chiejile, S. (2016, January 26\u201327). Investigating the use of high resolution multi-spectral satellite imagery for crop mapping in Nigeria crop and landuse classification using WorldView-3 high resolution multispectral imagery and Landsat8 data. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management (GISTAM), Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.5220\/0005767301090120"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"162","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2015.11.030","article-title":"Investigating the capability of WorldView-3 superspectral data for direct hydrocarbon detection","volume":"173","author":"Asadzadeh","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"10422","article-title":"Hyperspectral signatures and WorldView-3 imagery of indian river Lagoon and Banana river estuarine water and bottom types","volume":"2017","author":"Bostater","year":"2017","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Ocean Sea Ice Coast. Waters Large Water Reg."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Koenig, J., and Gueguen, L. (2016, January 21\u201324). A comparison of land use land cover classification using superspectral WorldView-3 vs hyperspectral imagery. Proceedings of the 2016 8th Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing: Evolution in Remote Sensing (WHISPERS), Los Angeles, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/WHISPERS.2016.8071721"},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"327","article-title":"DEM extraction from WorldView-3 stereo-images and accuracy evaluation","volume":"41","author":"Hu","year":"2016","journal-title":"Xxiii ISPRS Congr. Comm. I"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2018.03.016","article-title":"3D reconstruction from multi-view VHR-satellite images in Micmac","volume":"139","author":"Rupnik","year":"2018","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"661","article-title":"High-accuracy satellite image analysis and rapid DSM extraction for urban environment evaluations (Tripoli-Libya)","volume":"9","author":"Abduelmula","year":"2015","journal-title":"World Acad. Sci. Eng. Technol. Int. J. Comput. Electr. Autom. Control Inf. Eng."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Flamanc, D., and Maillet, G. (2005). Evaluation of 3D City Model Production from Pleiades hr Satellite Images and 2D Ground Maps, URBAN."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2014.04.007","article-title":"Radiometric and geometric evaluation of GeoEye-1, WorldView-2 and Pl\u00e9iades-1A stereo images for 3D information extraction","volume":"100","author":"Poli","year":"2015","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"59","article-title":"Performance evaluation for 3-D city model generation of six different DSMs from air-and spaceborne sensors","volume":"5","author":"Sirmacek","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE J.-STARS"},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"213","article-title":"From DSM to 3D building models: A quantitative evaluation","volume":"1","author":"Nex","year":"2013","journal-title":"ISPRS-Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Panagiotakis, E., Chrysoulakis, N., Charalampopoulou, V., and Poursanidis, D. (2018). Validation of Pleiades tri-stereo DSM in urban areas. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf, 7.","DOI":"10.20944\/preprints201801.0030.v1"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Piermattei, L., Marty, M., Karel, W., Ressl, C., Hollaus, M., Ginzler, C., and Pfeifer, N. (2018). Impact of the acquisition geometry of Very High-Resolution Pl\u00e9iades imagery on the accuracy of canopy height models over forested alpine regions. Remote Sens.-Basel, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10101542"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Stentoumis, C., Karkalou, E., and Karras, G. (2015, January 3\u20135). A review and evaluation of penalty functions for semi-global matching. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing (ICCP), Cluj-Napoca, Romania.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCP.2015.7312624"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"182","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2005.11.001","article-title":"Sensor orientation via RPCs","volume":"60","author":"Fraser","year":"2006","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"2019","article-title":"Very high resolution mapping with the Pleiades satellite constellation","volume":"6","author":"Perko","year":"2018","journal-title":"Am. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.5194\/isprsarchives-XL-3-W2-81-2015","article-title":"DEM generation with short base length Pleiades triplet","volume":"40","author":"Jacobsen","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci. ISPRS Arch."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"B1","article-title":"Pleiades-hr system products performance after in-orbit commissioning phase","volume":"39","author":"Panem","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"(2019, August 08). Orfeo Toolbox. Available online: https:\/\/www.orfeo-toolbox.org\/."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Kuester, M. (2016). Radiometric Use of Worldview-3 Imagery\u2014Technical Note, DigitalGlobe."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"218","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2009.12.004","article-title":"Bias-corrected Rational Polynomial Coefficients for high accuracy geo-positioning of Quickbird stereo imagery","volume":"65","author":"Tong","year":"2010","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Dial, G., and Grodecki, J. (2002, January 19\u201326). Block adjustment with rational polynomial camera models. Proceedings of the ASPRS 2002 Conference, Washington, DC, USA."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Trimble (2016). Match-T DSM Reference Manual, Trimble Inc."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Geospatial (2018, August 31). Trimble Inpho Brochure. Available online: http:\/\/www.inpho.de."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kraus, K. (2004). Photogrammetrie: Photogrammetrie: Geometrische Informationen aus Photographien und Laserscanneraufnahmen, Walter de Gruyter.","DOI":"10.1515\/9783110908039"},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"F\u00f6rstner, W. (1982, January 7\u201311). On the geometric precision of digital correlation. Proceedings of the Symposium of the ISPRS Commision III, Helsinki, France."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"F\u00f6rstner, W., and G\u00fclch, E. (1987, January 2\u20134). A fast operator for detection and precise location of distinct points, corners and centres of circular features. Proceedings of the ISPRS Intercommission Conference on Fast Processing of Photogrammetric Data, Interlaken, Switzerland."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"328","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2007.1166","article-title":"Stereoprocessing by Semi Global Matching and mutual information","volume":"30","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_36","first-page":"150","article-title":"A feature based correspondence algorithm for image matching","volume":"26","year":"1986","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_37","first-page":"317","article-title":"A global approach for least-squares image matching and surface reconstruction in object space","volume":"58","author":"Heipke","year":"1992","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Wenzel, K., Rothermel, M., Haala, N., and Fritsch, D. (2013, January 9\u201313). Sure\u2013the ifp software for dense image matching. Proceedings of the Photogrammetric Week, Stuttgart, Germany."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2013.11.002","article-title":"Opals\u2013a framework for airborne laser scanning data analysis","volume":"45","author":"Pfeifer","year":"2014","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2014.05.008","article-title":"Surface reconstruction and landslide displacement measurements with Pleiades satellite images","volume":"95","author":"Stumpf","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1007\/s11069-013-0583-4","article-title":"3D modeling of large urban areas with stereo VHR satellite imagery: Lessons learned","volume":"68","author":"Poli","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nat. Hazards"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/9\/2695\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:27:01Z","timestamp":1760174821000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/9\/2695"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,9]]},"references-count":41,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5]]}},"alternative-id":["s20092695"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s20092695","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,9]]}}}