Improving geo-information reliability by centralized change detection management

A consortium called Mutatis Mutandis (MutMut), consisting of three Universities and eight producers and users of geo-information, was established in the Netherlands to streamline change detection on a national level. After preliminary investigations concerning market feasibility, three actions are being taken by MutMut: (1) construction of a centralised, web based repository for collection and exchange of changes detected by various actors, (2) design and implementation of an image based, automated change detection methodology, and (3) widening the scope of the project in a European context. This paper focusses on the second action. Objects in the database are used to formulate hypotheses, for which newer imagery may or may not provide evidence. In the latter case, older imagery is considered as well. If evidence for the hypothesis could still be found there, a possible change is detected. The paper shows preliminary results of a first implementation of this methodology.