Texture-based landform segmentation of LiDAR imagery

In this study, we implement and apply a region growing segmentation procedure based on texture to extract spatial landform objects from a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) digital surface model (DSM). The local binary pattern (LBP) operator, modeling texture, is integrated into a region growing segmentation algorithm to identify landform objects. We apply a multi-scale LBP operator to describe texture at different scales. The paper is illustrated with a case study that involves segmentation of coastal landform objects using a LiDAR DSM of a coastal area in the UK. Landform objects can be identified with the combination of a multi-scale texture measure and a region growing segmentation. We show that meaningful coastal landform objects can be extracted with this algorithm. Uncertainty values provide useful information on transition zones or fuzzy boundaries between objects.