Automated Geospatial Conflation of Vector Road Maps to High Resolution Imagery

As the availability of various geospatial data increases, there is an urgent need to integrate multiple datasets to improve spatial analysis. However, since these datasets often originate from different sources and vary in spatial accuracy, they often do not match well to each other. In addition, the spatial discrepancy is often nonsystematic such that a simple global transformation will not solve the problem. Manual correction is labor-intensive and time-consuming and often not practical. In this paper, we present an innovative solution for a vector-to-imagery conflation problem by integrating several vector-based and image-based algorithms. We only extract the different types of road intersections and terminations from imagery based on spatial contextual measures. We eliminate the process of line segment detection which is often troublesome. The vector road intersections are matched to these detected points by a relaxation labeling algorithm. The matched point pairs are then used as control points to perform a piecewise rubber-sheeting transformation. With the end points of each road segment in correct positions, a modified snake algorithm maneuvers intermediate vector road vertices toward a candidate road image. Finally a refinement algorithm moves the points to center each road and obtain better cartographic quality. To test the efficacy of the automated conflation algorithm, we used U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER vector road data and U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1-m multi-spectral near infrared aerial photography in our study. Experiments were conducted over a variety of rural, suburban, and urban environments. The results demonstrated excellent performance. The average correctness measure increased from 20.6% to 95.5% and the average root-mean-square error decreased from 51.2 to 3.4 m.