Markov random fields for digital terrain model extraction

This paper deals with the automatic extraction of the ground elevation or Digital Terrain Model ( DTM) from the global digital elevation model (DEM). The proposed method is divided into two main steps: first, the road network and the cross-roads are extracted, and the elevation of the cross-roads is estimated on the DEM; secondly, the height of the cross-roads is regularized using some contextual knowledge. The second step is performed inside a Markovian framework based on the natural graph of the roads. Results on interferometric SAR data and optical images are presented.