Reconstruction of buildings in sar imagery of urban areas

Three-dimensional city models are of great interest for visualization, simulation, and monitoring purposes in different fields (Stilla et al., 2005). A typical application is the visualization of the influence of a planned building to the surrounding townscape in city and regional planning. City models are used as a basis for simulation - for example, in the fields of environmental engineering for microclimate investigations or telecommunications for transmitter placement. Additionally, demand for such models is growing in civil and military mission planning. Furthermore, three-dimensional information can be used for monitoring (e.g., damage assessment after an earthquake). All the mentioned tasks require knowledge about the three-dimensional structure of buildings.