Object-based building detection based on airborne laser scanning data within GRASS GIS environment

The paper gives insight into the workflow of a building detection algorithm analysing airborne laser scanning data based on open source software. The procedure is set up in the GRASS GIS environment. Buildings are exclusively extracted from airborne laser scanning data and its derivatives without using any additional data source (e.g. high resolution images). This shows the potential but also the limitations of this kind of data. The implemented object-based approach uses remote sensing and GIS methods. Buildings are landscape objects with a well defined border. The object-based approach works on sharp outlines of objects which is an advantage in the case of building detection.