A precision estimation method for volumetric changes

Abstract

Earth surface changes are often computed by comparing the sequences of digital elevation models (DEMs) so called the DEM of difference (DoD) method. We present an operational DEM generation, co-registration and DoD comparison software in which the surface changes are quantified in metric units of volume. A practical method, which is based on the law of error propagation, is developed to estimate the theoretical precisions of volumetric changes. The proposed pipeline can estimate the change of object volumes (in terms of loss and gain) together with their precision numbers. Change of the forest volume in a fire effected region in a test site is analyzed for the validation. The method can be used for various change detection applications related to forestry as well as other topics such as earthworks, geomorphology, mining, and urbanization.