Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Course- Machine Processing of Remotely Sensed Data (CE672A)

Term Paper on
‘Change Detection Techniques for Remote Sensing Images’

Name of Student – Deshpande Prasad Jayant

Roll no -17103270
Program – Ph.D. (HWRE , Civil Dept.) 1
Contents
I. Overview
II. Methodology
III. Results & Conclusion
IV. Summary & Future Scope
V. References

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 2

Overview
 PYTHON Programming Language

 Free & Open Source Tool. (FOSS)

 Popular for Machine Learning / AI community
 Object oriented with significant whitespace
 Emphasizes code readability
 Used as backend language for many software tools

 Modules used – Numpy, Tkinter, PIL

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 3

I. Overview
Defining Change Detection
• A process that measures how the
attributes of a particular area have
changed between two or more time
periods. (Ref. ESRI GIS Dictionary)

• Sometimes it is change in DN

• Sometimes it can be change of one class

into another.
Fig- Changes in lake
Source - https://www.gisresources.com/

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I. Overview
Applications
• Deforestation assessment
• Vegetation phenology
• Urban sprawl
• Damage assessment
• Crop stress detection
• Snow melting
• Traffic- Transportation studies

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I. Overview
Time Period
 Be careful to identify the optimal change detection time period(s).

 Traffic transportation studies might require a change detection period

of just a few seconds or minutes.

 Images obtained monthly or seasonally might be sufficient to monitor

the greening of a continent.

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I. Overview
Taxonomy of Change Detections Techniques
• Based on Algorithm

o Algebra based methods

o Time Series based methods
o Transformation based methods
o Classification Based methods
o GIS based methods
o Visual Analysis based methods

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I. Overview
Taxonomy of Change Detections Techniques
• Based on Classes

o Binary Change Detection

o Multiclass Change Detection

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II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Image Differencing

o Difference between two images collected over the same place at

different times.
o Normalization -
𝜎1
𝐼2 (𝑥, 𝑦) = (𝐼2 (𝑥, 𝑦) − 𝜇2 ) + 𝜇1
𝜎2
o Difference-
𝐼𝑑 𝑥, 𝑦 = 𝐼1 (𝑥, 𝑦) − 𝐼2 (𝑥, 𝑦)
o This difference is done pixel by pixel

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 9

II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Image Differencing

Fig- Change Image Histogram

Source - http://rslab.disi.unitn.it Fig- Change Image Histogram
CE672A : Change Detection Techniques
Source - http://rslab.disi.unitn.it 10
II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Image Ratioing

o Assumption - the ratio of the DN values for a stable feature over two dates
would be unity, while changed pixels would have a ratio significantly
different from unity.
DN ij (t 2 )
Rij 
DN ij (t1 )

o This difference is done pixel by pixel

o critical step is to determine the threshold which is often empirical.

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 11

II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Image Ratioing

o Pros –
 Simple
 Problems related to viewing conditions
o Cons–
 No from-to information on change
 Non-normal distribution observed

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 12

II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Change Vector Analysis

o The vector describing the direction and magnitude of change from Date 1
to Date 2 is a spectral change vector.
o The reflectance values collected for a pixel can be thought of as coordinates
for a vector in multidimensional space.
o The vector difference between two dates indicated the change for a pixel.
 the magnitude of change (the modulus of the change vector)
 the direction of change (the angle between the two vectors).

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II. Methodology
Algebra Based Methods
• Change Vector Analysis
o Pros –
 Utilizes multispectral data
bands.
 Type of occurrence of
change is designated
o Cons–
 Similar to image ratioing
and differening
Fig- Change Vector Analysis
Source -
CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 14
II. Methodology
Transformation Based Methods
• Principal Component Analysis
(Method 1)

o Perform PCA on first and

second image separately
o Apply procedure of change
detection by differencing to
corresponding PCs.
o Here, redundant components
are removed.
Fig- Change Vector Analysis
Source - https://sebastianraschka.com
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II. Methodology
Transformation Based Methods
• Principal Component Analysis
(Method 2)

o Put first and second images into a

single file.
o Perform PCA and analyse the minor
component images for change
information.
o Major Component should be 45˚
o Minor component represents the
Fig- PCA Method 2
divergence
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II. Results & Discussion
Change Detection Program Demo

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Summary & Future Scope
 Summary –
o Change detection important for monitoring the changes in
natural resources and hence their estimation.
o Radiometric correction and image registration are important
pre-processing steps of change detection.
o Different change detection techniques have different pros and
cons, hence the selection of technique is dependent on the
output required.
o Choosing right threshold is most of the time difficult and
depends upon analyst’s skill.

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Summary & Future Scope
 Future Scope –
 New availability of datasets
having variety in spectral,
spatial and temporal
characteristics.
 Advancement in
computational capabilities,
development of new
algorithms related to deep
learning , CNN etc.

CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 19

V. References
 Morton J. Canty, Image Analysis, Classification and Change Detection
in Remote Sensing (With Algorithms for ENVI/IDL and Python) 2014.
 Anon, Pixel-Based Change Detection Methods. , pp.7–22.
 Lu, D., Mausel, P., Brondizio, E. and Moran, E., 2004, Change detection
techniques, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 25(12), pp.2365-2407.
 Richard, J., Radke, Srinivas, A., Omar, A.K. and Badrinath, R., 2005,
Image Change Detection Algorithms: A Systematic Survey, IEEE
Transactions on Image Processing, 14(3), pp.294-307.
 Jianya, G., Haigang, S., Guorui, M and Qiming, Z., 2008. a Review of
Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data Change Detection.
CE672A : Change Detection Techniques 20
Thank You !!!

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