Classification of urban LiDAR data using conditional random field and random forests

Abstract

In this work we address the task of contextual classification of an airborne LiDAR point cloud. For that purpose, we integrate a Random Forest classifier into a Conditional Random Field (CRF) framework. A CRF has been shown to deliver good results discerning multiple classes. It is a flexible approach for obtaining a reliable classification even in complex urban scenes. The incorporation of multi-scale features improves the results further. Based on the classification results, 2D building and tree objects are generated and evaluated by the benchmark of ISPRS WG III/4.