Towards LOD-2 Building Reconstruction: Leveraging Segmentation and Roof Shape Extraction Methods from VHR Imagery

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Vaibhav Rajan - , Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Author)
  • Sander Münster - , Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Author)
  • Jonas Bruschke - , Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Author)
  • Ferdinand Maiwald - , Chair of Optical 3D-Metrology (Author)

Abstract

Accurate extraction of roof structures from aerial imagery is a critical step in the creation of detailed 3D models for digital heritage reconstruction. This study explores a hybrid methodology that combines prompt-based segmentation with structured vector reconstruction to enhance the extraction of roof skeletons from Very High Resolution (VHR) orthophotos. Using HEAT (Holistic Edge Attention Transformer) as the primary reconstruction model, we fine-tuned it on a domain-specific dataset containing representative gabled and hipped roofs to adapt to the unique geometries found in the city of Jena, Germany. To test whether prior roof isolation could improve reconstruction performance, we integrated mask outputs from two segmentation models — RobustSAM and LangSAM — into the HEAT pipeline. While segmentation offered visually precise results in several instances, overall evaluation revealed that prior segmentation did not consistently improve HEAT’s reconstruction accuracy. These findings underscore HEAT’s robustness and adaptability, especially when properly fine-tuned. Moreover, while SAM variants did not significantly boost performance here, their ease of use and potential for improvement through domain-specific fine-tuning suggest promising applications in other contexts.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication30th CIPA Symposium “Heritage Conservation from Bits: From Digital Documentation to Data-driven Heritage Conservation”, 25–29 August 2025, Seoul, Republic of Korea
EditorsHyeseung Shim, Seungae Choi, Wonjin Lee, HaeUn Rii, Sungyoung Kim
Pages1251–1256
Number of pages6
Publication statusPublished - 3 Oct 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesThe International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences (ISPRS Archives)
VolumeXLVIII-M-9-2025
ISSN1682-1750

External IDs

Mendeley 5fb0fff2-da4b-3adf-aa80-ff5db4074adf
unpaywall 10.5194/isprs-archives-xlviii-m-9-2025-1251-2025
Scopus 105020069781

Keywords

Keywords

  • Building Segmentation, Edge Reconstruction, Feature Extraction, LOD-2 Models, Roof Shape Detection, VHR Satellite Imagery