Change detection using Landsat and Worldview images

Abstract

This paper presents some preliminary results using Landsat and Worldview images for change detection. The studied area had some significant changes such as construction of buildings between May 2014 and October 2015. We investigated several simple, practical, and effective approaches to change detection. For Landsat images, we first performed pansharpening to enhance the resolution to 15 meters. We then performed a chronochrome covariance equalization between two images. The residual between the two equalized images was then analyzed using several simple algorithms such as direct subtraction and global Reed-Xiaoli (GRX) detector. Experimental results using actual Landsat images clearly demonstrated that the proposed methods are effective. For Worldview images, we used pansharpened images with only four bands for change detection. The performance of the aforementioned algorithms is comparable to that of a commercial package developed by Digital Globe.