Existing techniques of 3-D reconstruction of buildings from SAR images are mostly based on multibaseline SAR interferometry, such as PSI and SAR tomography (TomoSAR). However, these techniques require tens of images for a reliable reconstruction, which limits the application in various scenarios, such as emergency response. Therefore, alternatives that use a single SAR image and the building footprints from GIS data show their great potential in 3-D reconstruction. The combination of GIS data and SAR images requires a precise registration, which is challenging due to the unknown terrain height, and the difficulty in finding and extracting the correspondence. In this paper, we propose a framework to automatically register GIS building footprints to a SAR image by exploiting the features representing the intersection of ground and visible building facades, specifically the near-range boundaries in the building polygons, and the double bounce lines in the SAR image. Based on those features, the two data sets are registered progressively in multiple resolutions, allowing the algorithm to cope with variations in the local terrain. The proposed framework was tested in Berlin using one TerraSAR-X High Resolution SpotLight image and GIS building footprints of the area. Comparing to the ground truth, the proposed algorithm reduced the average distance error from 5.91 m before the registration to −0.08 m, and the standard deviation from 2.77 m to 1.12 m. Such accuracy, better than half of the typical urban floor height (3 m), is significant for precise building height reconstruction on a large scale. The proposed registration framework has great potential in assisting SAR image interpretation in typical urban areas and building model reconstruction from SAR images.

现有的 SAR 图像建筑物 3D 重建技术大多基于多基线 SAR 干涉测量，例如 PSI 和 SAR 层析成像 (TomoSAR)。然而，这些技术需要数十张图像才能进行可靠的重建，这限制了在紧急响应等各种场景中的应用。因此，使用单个 SAR 图像和 GIS 数据中的建筑物足迹的替代方案显示了其在 3D 重建方面的巨大潜力。 GIS数据和SAR图像的结合需要精确的配准，由于未知的地形高度以及查找和提取对应关系的困难，这具有挑战性。在本文中，我们提出了一个框架，通过利用表示地面和可见建筑物立面相交的特征，特别是建筑物多边形中的近范围边界，以及建筑物多边形中的双弹跳线，自动将 GIS 建筑物足迹注册到 SAR 图像中。 SAR 图像。基于这些特征，这两个数据集以多种分辨率逐步注册，使算法能够应对当地地形的变化。所提出的框架在柏林使用一张 TerraSAR-X 高分辨率聚光灯图像和该地区的 GIS 建筑足迹进行了测试。与地面真实情况相比，该算法将平均距离误差从配准前的5.91 m减少到-0.08 m，标准差从2.77 m减少到1.12 m。这种精度优于典型城市层高（3 m）的一半，对于大规模精确重建建筑高度具有重要意义。所提出的配准框架在协助典型城市地区的SAR图像解释和从SAR图像重建模型方面具有巨大的潜力。