Abstract
Vector and raster are two types of spatial data structures used in a geographic information system (GIS). With the development of GIS and remote sensing (RS) technologies, how to rapidly convert raster to vector data and establish topological relations among vectorized polygons is becoming a bottleneck in data integration between GIS and RS. Based on the previous work, an improved vectorization method is proposed to vectorize classified RS raster data quickly and automatically establish topological relations. In accordance with the connection information of arcs and nodes and both-sides polygonal attributes of arcs, the next arc can be searched directly by attribute matching when constructing polygons, thereby improving search efficiency. Moreover, our method addressed the problems of self-intersecting polygons, shared-boundary, and multi-nested islands and gave corresponding solutions, which can establish the topological relations of an entire image quickly. Two experiments, one for comparison between before and after vectorization of two different classified RS raster maps, and the other for comparison with several methods, are carried out to test the accuracy and efficiency of our method. Results show that the method solves the self-intersecting polygons, shared-boundary, and multi-nested islands problems. In addition, its vectorization speed is more than double that of commercial software ArcGIS, and the advantage of our method becomes more obvious as the number of polygons increases. Thus, our method can vectorize large and complex classified RS raster data with sufficient efficiency for practical use and establish topological relations among vectorized polygons.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Bakri M, Fairbairn D (2012) Assessing similarity matching for possible integration of feature classifications of geospatial data from official and informal sources. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 26:1437–1456. doi:10.1080/13658816. 2011.636012
Bai YB, Xu XW (2001) Object boundary encoding-a new vectorisation algorithm for engineering drawings. Comput Ind 46:65–74. doi:10.1016/S0166-3615(01) 00115-4
Capson DW (1984) An improved algorithm for the sequential extraction of boundaries from a raster scan. Comp Vis Graphics and Image Process 28:109–125. doi:10.1016/ 0734-189X(84)90143-9
Chang F, Chen CJ, Lu CJ (2004) A linear-time component-labeling algorithm using contour tracing technique. Comput Vis Image Underst 93:206–220. doi:10.1016/ j.cviu.2003.09.002
Chen RX, Zhao ZM, Pan J (2006) A fast method of vectorization for RS classified raster map. J Remote Sens 10:326–311. doi:10.3969/j.issn.1560-8999.2008.06.009
Dalstein B, Ronfard R, Michiel VDP (2014) Vector graphics complexes. ACM Trans Graph 33:70–79. doi:10.1145/2601097.2601169
Fu QH, Ni SX, Guo J, Li KL (2004) Vectorization of raster data and solution to relevant problems. Geogr Inf Sci 22:85–89. doi:10.3969/j.issn.1560-8999.2004.04. 019
Goodchild MF (2011) Scale in GIS: an overview. Geomorphology 130:5–9. doi:10.1016/j. geomorph.2010.10.004
Goudarzi M, Asghari M, Boguslawski P, Rahman AA (2015) Dual half edge data structure in database for big data in GIS. ISPRS Annals Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci II-2/W2:41–45. doi:10.5194/isprsannals-II-2-W2-41-2015
Guo B, Hu T (2009) An improved run-based algorithm for fast and exact boundary extraction. International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, IEEE Computer Society 2009:240–243. doi:10.1109/IIS.2009.73
Hu HB (2014) An algorithm for converting weather radar data into GIS polygons and its application in severe weather warning systems. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 28:1765–1780. doi:10.1080/13658816.2014.898767
Kang CC, Wang WJ, Kang CH (2012) Image segmentation with complicated background by using seeded region growing. Int J Electron Commun 66:767–771. doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2012.01.011
Kim SD, Lee JH, Kim JK (1988) A new chain-coding algorithm for binary images using run-length codes. Comput Vis Graphics Image Process 41:114–128. doi:10.1016/ 0734-189X(88)90121-1
Lee CA, Samuel DG, Plaza A, Chang C, Huang B (2011) Recent developments in high performance computing for remote sensing: a review. J-STARS 4:508–527. doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2011. 2162643
Li F, Zhou XG (2013) A self-intersecting polygon processing algorithm in the vectorization of classified raster data. Geogr Inf Sci Wuhan University 38:100–104. doi:10.13203/j.whugis2013.01.026
Li F, Zhou XG, Li HO, Chen XB (2013) Characteristics of classified raster data and its vector algorithm. Science of Surveying and Mapping 38:101–103
Lou XL, Huang WG, Shi AQ, Teng JH (2005) Raster to vector conversion of classified remote sensing image. IGARSS 5:3656–3658. doi:10.1109/IGARSS
Morales J, Gonzalez JA, Reyes-Garcia CA, Altamirano L (2014) Transition regions detection from satellite images based on evolutionary region growing segmentation. Intelligent Data Anal 18:305–316. doi:10.3233/IDA-140642
Neperud B, Lowther J, Shene CK (2007) Visualizing and animating the winged-edge data structure. Comput Graph 31:877–866. doi:10.1016/j.cag.2007.08.009
Nichols DA (1981) Conversion of raster coded images to polygonal data structures. Proceedings: PECORA-V-II-Symposium, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 508–515
Quek FKH (2000) An algorithm for the rapid computation of boundaries of run-length encoded regions. Pattern Recogn 33:1637–1649. doi:10.1016/S0031-3203(98)00118-6
Ren MW, Yang JY, Sun H (2002) Tracing boundary contours in a binary image. Image Vis Comput 20:125–131. doi:10.1016/S0262-8856(01)00091-9
Robinson DT, Brown DG (2009) Evaluating the effects of land–use development policies on ex–urban forest cover: an integrated agent–based GIS approach. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 23:1211–1232. doi:10.1080/13658810802344101
Rosenfeld A (1970) Connectivity in digital pictures. J ACM 17:146–160. doi:10.1145/321556.321570
Song J, Su F, Tai CL, Cai S (2002) An object-oriented progressive-simplification-based vectorization system for engineering drawings: model, algorithm, and performance. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 24:1048–1060. doi:10.1109/TPAMI.2002.1023802
Strumiłło-Rembowska D, Cieślak I, Pawlewicz K (2014) Comparative analysis on the use of raster and vector data in the optimization process of rural area planning. JSSP 3:1–6
Teng JH, Wang FH (2007) Improved algorithm for data conversion from raster to vector. Proceedings of SPIE, Geoinformatics 2007: Geospatial Information Technology and Applications 67540L: 1–11. doi:10.1117/12.764602
Teng JH, Wang FH, Liu Y (2008) An efficient algorithm for raster-to-vector data conversion. Ann GIS 14:54–62. doi:10.1080/ 10824000809480639
Wagenknecht G (2007) A contour tracing and coding algorithm for generating 2D contour codes from 3D classified objects. Pattern Recogn. 40:1294–1306. doi:10.1016/j.patcog.2006.09.003
Wang YF, Chen ZJ, Cheng L, Li MC, Wang JC (2013) Parallel scanline algorithm for rapid rasterization of vector geographic data. Comput Geosci 59:31–40. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2013.05.005
Wei JB, Li MC, Wang YF, Chen C, Hong WY, Chen ZJ (2012) Parallel algorithm designed for polygon vectorization. Geoinformatics (GEOINFORMATICS), 2012 20th International Conference on IEEE 1–4. doi:10.1109/Geoinformatics.2012.6270305
Xie SP, Du JK, Wang JC (2004a) A method for tracing run-length outline to implement vectorization of raster graphics and image data. J Remote Sens 8:465–470. doi:10.3321/j.issn:1007-4619.2004.05.013
Xie SP, Du JK, Wang LC, Gu GQ (2004b) Approach of vectorization for GIS raster data based on run-length encoding system. Acta Geodaetica Et Cartographic Sinica 33:323–327. doi:10.3321/j.issn:1001-1595.2004.04.009
Yu P, Qin AK, Clausi DA (2012) Unsupervised polarimetric SAR image segmentation and classification using region growing with edge penalty. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 50:1302–1317. doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2014.2361756
Zhang XY, Wang M, Jiang S (2008) A novel approach for raster data vectorization. Geogr Inf Sci 10:730–735. doi:10.3321/j.issn:1007-4619.2006.03.007
Zhang LL, Shi YF, Mi CL (2013) Survey of research progress on three dimensional topological data structure. Appl Mech Mater 303-306:1129–1133. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.303-306.1129
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by: H. A. Babaie
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xu, B., Chen, J. & Yu, P. Vectorization of classified remote sensing raster data to establish topological relations among polygons. Earth Sci Inform 10, 99–113 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-016-0273-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-016-0273-3