Applying multi-temporal Sentinel-1 SAR remote sensing images in creating maps of solid construction structures in the Ca Mau peninsula area

Abstract

Mapping building structures is crucial for environmental change and impact assessment, and is especially important to accurately estimate fossil fuel CO₂ emissions from human settlements. From time-series composites of Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in the two-dimensional VV-VH polarization space, we determined the VV-VH domain for detecting building structures, whose persistence was defined based on the number of times that a pixel was identified as a building in time-series data. The methods were tested in three cities in Ca Mau peninsula (Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Soc Trang). Using in-situ data and field observations, we validated the methods and found that the results were accurate, with an average false negative rate of 9,8% and average false positive rate of 5,6% for building detection. The results demonstrated the potential use of satellite dual-polarization SAR to identify persistent building structures annually across rural–urban landscapes with different environmental conditions.