ISFEREA’s scientific and technical support is underpinned by the following R+D activities:

• Developing methods and tools for automatic detection and extraction of built-up layers at various scales from high-resolution (HR) and very high resolution (VHR) optical and radar satellite data; the methods under development exploit image structural information such as texture, pattern and morphology.

• Developing methods for detection/analysis of specific types of informal settlements (namely refugee camps, internally displaced camps) in HR and VHR satellite data. Developing an inventory of informal settlements around the world on basis of satellite data. Developing methods for defining typology of informal dwelling units and surrounding conditions.

• Developing methods, based on multi-criteria analysis using texture, morphology-derived and radiometric descriptors, for the characterisation and monitoring of human settlement structures (including slums) in cities.

• Developing techniques for automatic recognition of damaged and rebuilt structures in HR and VHR satellite data on the basis of the derivative of the morphological profile (DMP) methods and fuzzy knowledge-based multi-criteria analyses

• Exploring remote sensing imagery interpretation from a cognitive and neuro-ergonomic point of view to: improve the objective measurement of human response to image stimulus, optimising the digital satellite image processing with respect to the objectives of an augmented consistency and efficiency of the human interpretation; explore the improvement of automatic image information extraction techniques by including, in the training phase, image features that have been selected as best performing by the analysis of the human image interpretation process.