Information content capabilities of very high resolution optical space imagery for updating GIS database

Nowadays, the number and capacity of very high resolution optical satellites grows permanently, so the access to very high resolution space images is not any more a problem. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GISs) together with Remote Sensing became important. With the increased ground resolution a competition to aerial images exist. For the generation of topographic maps, today available as GIS, the accuracy and the information content - what elements can be identified in the image - are important. Both may limit the presentation scale of topographic maps. As horizontal accuracy 0.25mm up to 0.3mm in the map scale are accepted. The required information content is more complicate. The object details to be presented in topographic maps vary from area to area which is based on the planned and unplanned areas. In this study, images from IRS-1C, Kompsat-1, SPOT 5, OrbView-3, IKONOS, QuickBird and WorldView-1 have been used for topographic mapping. For this reason, Zonguldak test fields are an important area for applications of the high resolution imageries. The details which can be identified in the space images dominantly depends upon the ground resolution, available as ground sampling distance (GSD). In this study, high resolution imageries have been tested depending on the GSD and corresponding to the map scales for updating GIS database. © 2015 SPIE