Vertical accuracy of the SRTM DTED level 1 of Crete

Abstract

A reference digital elevation model (DEM), produced from contour lines digitization, from topographic maps at scale 1:250.000 is used in order to assess the vertical accuracy of the SRTM DTED level 1 in Crete Island in Southern Greece. The error image interpretation revealed three types of systematic errors: (a) stripping, (b) large voids and (c) those errors resulted from the mis-registration of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) imagery to the local datum. Terrain was segmented to plane regions and sloping regions. Sloping regions were segmented to aspect regions (aspect being standardized to the eight geographic directions defined in a raster/grid image). Error statistics was computed for the study area as well as the individual terrain classes. Vertical accuracy was found to be terrain class dependent. Sloping regions present greater mean error than the plane ones. Statistical tests verified that the difference in mean error between aspect regions that slope in opposite geographic directions is statistically significant. The greater mean error is observed for SW, W and NW aspect regions. The additional finishing steps applied to the SRTM dataset were not sufficient enough for the systematic errors and the terrain class dependency of the error to be corrected. The observed root-mean-square error (RMSE) for the SRTM DTED-1 of Crete do not fulfil the 16m RMSE specification for the SRTM mission while the USA national map accuracy standards for the scale 1:250.000 are satisfied.