Evaluating Urbanization from Satellite and Aerial Images by means of a statistical approach to the texture analysis

TL;DR

This paper presents a statistical texture analysis method using mean and standard deviation of pixel tones to evaluate urbanization levels from satellite and aerial images, enabling quantitative urban-rural differentiation.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, effective statistical approach for distinguishing urban from rural textures in satellite and aerial imagery.

Findings

Successfully differentiates urban and rural textures

Provides quantitative measures of urbanization

Applicable to various satellite and aerial images

Abstract

Statistical methods are usually applied in the processing of digital images for the analysis of the textures displayed by them. Aiming to evaluate the urbanization of a given location from satellite or aerial images, here we consider a simple processing to distinguish in them the 'urban' from the 'rural' texture. The method is based on the mean values and the standard deviations of the colour tones of image pixels. The processing of the input images allows to obtain some maps from which a quantitative evaluation of the textures can be obtained.