- GEOBIA (pronounced ge-o-be-uh) is a recent sub-discipline of Geographic Information Science devoted to developing automated methods to partition remote sensing (RS) images into meaningful image-objects, and assessing their characteristics through spatial, spectral and temporal scales. Its applications range from agriculture and natural resource management, to national defense and global climate change. Its economic impact spans from data collection, hardware and software vendors, developers and users, to recipients of sound sustainable environmental policy.
- GEOBIA 2008 builds upon the success of the 1st International Conference on Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA 2006), held in Salzburg Austria, where over 120 participants from 24 different countries attended to discuss the latest advances in this developing field. An edited book is currently being published from extended peer-reviewed conference papers [1],and an OBIA Wiki was established to promote the discipline. A GEOBIA Wiki has also been established to facilitate community interaction related to this conference [2].Â
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One of the a key concerns expressed in the OBIA-wiki was that the term OBIA encompassed techniques used in many disciplines other than Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Science. Accordingly, it was suggested that the adjective ‘geographic' could be added as a qualifier to distinguish RS/GIS OBIA from other domains such as biomedical imaging. As a result, the acronym GEOBIA (where the GEO- pseudo prefix emphasizes the geographic component of this field) was selected as the name of the heir to the successful OBIA '06 international conference: GEOBIA, 2008 - Pixels, Objects, Intelligence. GEographic Object Based Image Analysis for the 21st Century.
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At its most fundamental level, GEOBIA requires image segmentation, attribution, classification and the ability to query and link individual objects (a.k.a. segments) in space and time. In order to achieve this, GEOBIA incorporates knowledge from a vast array of disciplines involved in the generation and use of geographic information (GI). However, it is this unique focus on RS and GI that distinguishes GEOBIA from related techniques in Computer Vision and Biomedical Imaging, where outstanding research exists that may significantly contribute to GEOBIA.
[1] Object-Based Image Analysis - Spatial concepts for knowledge-driven remote sensing applications. Eds: Thomas Blaschke, Stefan Lang, Geoffrey J. Hay. Springer Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2008.
[2] OBIA Wiki - over 7312 hits (since July 2006 - updated January 17, 2008 ). GEOBIA Wiki - over 1468 hits (since February 03, 2007 - updated August 08, 2007).
