3-D Map Generation of Nuclear Sites from IKONOS Imagery

Satellite imagery has been used by various organizations, including the IAEA, as an effective tool for various safeguards applications such as change detection, detection of undeclared activities, monitor changes within a declared facility, monitor activity of remote decommissioned nuclear facilities. Recently, satellite imagery has been used in the preparation and verification of the state’s declarations. Information from imagery can be extracted and stored in various layers, which can be linked together by geospatial coordinates, for further analysis and integration by Geographical Information System (GIS). 3-D information extraction from imagery for use in GIS is a tedious process. It is labour intensive and can be very costly for complex sites. This paper presents a new, fast and cost-effective approach to extract 3-D information of a nuclear site using IKONOS imagery. By utilizing various spatial, spectral and contextual information from the imagery, one can achieve fast, accurate and automated mapping of nuclear sites. The system allows non-mapping specialists to conduct sophisticated mapping tasks such as ortho-rectification of imagery, generation of digital terrain models, image draping, and 3-D site creation (e.g., derivation of heights of buildings) in a highly automated fashion. A comprehensive test program was performed to verify the applicability of this approach. The tests were based on a 1-m resolution IKONOS stereo pair imagery of a nuclear facility in Ontario, Canada. In addition, accurate aerial control image data, alignment data, base mapping data for the region, as well as building engineering data were acquired to verify the approach. It has been demonstrated that Rational Mapper is ideal for rapid generation of nuclear sites.