Change Detection Based on Artificial Intelligence: State-of-the-Art and Challenges

1. Introduction

Change detection based on remote sensing (RS) data is an important method of detecting changes on the Earth’s surface and has a wide range of applications in urban planning, environmental monitoring, agriculture investigation, disaster assessment, and map revision. In recent years, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become a research focus in developing new change detection methods. Although some researchers claim that AI-based change detection approaches outperform traditional change detection approaches, it is not immediately obvious how and to what extent AI can improve the performance of change detection. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art methods, applications, and challenges of AI for change detection. Specifically, the implementation process of AI-based change detection is first introduced. Then, the data from different sensors used for change detection, including optical RS data, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, street view images, and combined heterogeneous data, are presented, and the available open datasets are also listed. The general frameworks of AI-based change detection methods are reviewed and analyzed systematically, and the unsupervised schemes used in AI-based change detection are further analyzed. Subsequently, the commonly used networks in AI for change detection are described. From a practical point of view, the application domains of AI-based change detection methods are classified based on their applicability. Finally, the major challenges and prospects of AI for change detection are discussed and delineated, including (a) heterogeneous big data processing, (b) unsupervised AI, and (c) the reliability of AI. This review will be beneficial for researchers in understanding this field.

Figure 1. General schematic diagram of change detection.

2. Implementation process

Figure 2 provide a general implementation process of AI-based change detection, but the structure of the AI model is diverse and needs to be well designed according to different application situations and the training data. It is worth mentioning that existing mature frameworks such as TensorFlow, Keras, Pytorch, and Caffe, help researchers more easily realize the design, training, and deployment of AI models, and their development documents provide detailed introductions.

Figure 2. Implementation process of AI-based change detection (black arrows indicate workflow and red arrow indicates an example).

2.1 Available codes for AI-based methods

Table 1. A list of available codes for AI-based change detection methods.

Methods	Keywords	Publication	(Re-)Implementation
SRCDNet	CNN; Siamese; Attention; Super-resolution; Optical RS	Super-resolution-based change detection network with stacked attention module for images with different resolutions, TGRS, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset]	Pytorch 1.2
ESCNet	CNN; Siamese; Superpixel; Optical RS	An End-to-End superpixel-enhanced change detection network for Very-High-Resolution remote sensing images. TNNLS, 2021. [paper], [code]	Pytorch 1.3
KPCAMNet	CNN; Siamese; KPCA; Unsupervised; Optical RS	Unsupervised change detection in multitemporal VHR images based on deep kernel PCA convolutional mapping network,TCYB, 2021. [paper], [code]	Python
SeCo	CNN (ResNet); Transfer Learning; Optical RS	Seasonal contrast: unsupervised pre-training from uncurated remote sensing data, arXiv, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset]	Pytorch 1.7
CapsNet	Capsule Network(SegCaps); CVA; Siamese; Optical RS	Pseudo-siamese capsule network for aerial remote sensing images change detection, GRSL, 2020. [paper 1], Change Capsule Network for Optical Remote Sensing ImageChange Detection, RS, 2021. [paper 2], [code, dataset]	Keras
BIT_CD	CNN (ResNet18); Siamese; Attention; Transformer; Optical RS	Remote sensing image change detection with transformers, TGRS, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch 1.6
IAug_CDNet	CNN (GauGAN+UNet); Siamese; GAN; Supervised; Optical RS	Adversarial instance augmentation for building change detection in remote sensing images, TGRS, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset]	Pytorch
DDNet	CNN; DI+FCM; Unsupervised; SAR	Change detection in synthetic aperture radar images using a dual-domain network, GRSL, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset]	Pytorch
SNUNet-CD	CNN (NestedUNet); Siamese; Attention; Supervised; Optical RS	SNUNet-CD: A densely connected siamese network for change detection of VHR images, GRSL, 2021. [paper], [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch 1.4
DSMSCN	CNN; Siamese; Multi-scale; Unsupervised/Supervised; Optical RS	A deeply supervised image fusion network for change detection in high resolution bi-temporal remote sening images, arXiv, 2020. [paper], [code, dataset]	Tensorflow 1.9
SiamCRNN	CNN+RNN; Siamese; Multi-source; Optical RS	Change Detection in Multisource VHR Images via Deep Siamese Convolutional Multiple-Layers Recurrent Neural Network, TGRS, 2020. [paper], [code, dataset]	Tensorflow 1.9
DSIFN	CNN; Attention Mechanism; Optical RS	A deeply supervised image fusion network for change detection in high resolution bi-temporal remote sening images, ISPRS, 2020. [paper], [code, dataset]	Pytorch & Keras
CEECNet	CNN; Attention Mechanism; Similarity Measure; Optical RS	Looking for change? Roll the Dice and demand Attention, arXiv, 2020. [paper], [code, dataset]	MXNet + Python
LamboiseNet	CNN (Light UNet++); Optical RS	Change detection in satellite imagery using deep learning, Master Thesis. [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch
DTCDSCN	CNN; Siamese	Building change detection for remote sensing images using a dual task constrained deep siamese convolutional network model, undergoing review. [code, dataset]	Pytorch
Land-Cover-Analysis	CNN (UNet); Post-Classification; Optical RS	Land Use/Land cover change detection in cyclone affected areas using convolutional neural networks. [report], [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	TensorFlow+Keras
CorrFusionNet	CNN; Scene-level; Siamese; Optical RS	Correlation based fusion network towards multi-temporal scene classification and change detection, undergoing review. [code, pre-trained model], [dataset]	TensorFlow 1.8
SSCDNet	CNN (ResNet18); Siamese; Transfer Learning; Semantic; Streetview	Weakly supervised silhouette-based semantic scene change detection, ICRA, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch+Python3.6
Heterogeneous_CD	AE (Code-Aligned AE); Unsupervised; Transformation; Heterogeneous; Optical RS	Code-aligned autoencoders for unsupervised change detection in multimodal remote sensing images, arXiv, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset]	TensorFlow 2.0
FDCNN	CNN (VGG16); Transfer Learning; Pure-Siamese; Multi-scale; Optical RS	A feature difference convolutional neural network-based change detection method, TGRS, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Caffe+Python2.7
STANet	CNN (ResNet-18); Attention Mechanism; Pure-Siamese; Spatial–Temporal Dependency; Optical RS	A spatial-temporal attention-based method and a new dataset for remote sensing image change detection, RS, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset]	Pytorch+Python3.6
X-Net	CNN; Unsupervised; Transformation; Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	Deep image translation with an affinity-based change prior for unsupervised multimodal change detection, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset]	Tensorflow 1.4
ACE-Net	AE (Adversarial Cyclic Encoders); Unsupervised; Transformation; Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	Deep image translation with an affinity-based change prior for unsupervised multimodal change detection, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset]	Tensorflow 1.4
VGG_LR	CNN (VGG16); Transfer Learning; Pure-Siamese; SLIC; Low Ranks; Optical RS	Change detection based on deep features and low rank, GRSL, 2017. [paper] [re-implementation code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Caffe+Matlab
CDNet	CNN; Siamese; Multimodal Data; Point Cloud Data	Detecting building changes between airborne laser scanning and photogrammetric data, RS, 2019. [paper], [code]	Pytorch
SCCN	AE (DAE); Unsupervised; Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	A deep convolutional coupling network for change detection based on heterogeneous optical and radar images, TNNLS, 2018. [paper] [re-implementation code]	TensorFlow 2.0
cGAN	GAN (conditional GAN); Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	A conditional adversarial network for change detection in heterogeneous images, GRSL, 2019. [paper] [re-implementation code]	TensorFlow 2.0
DASNet	CNN (VGG16); Siamese; Attention Mechanism ; Optical RS	DASNet: Dual attentive fully convolutional siamese networks for change detection of high resolution satellite images, arXiv, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch+Python3.6
UNetLSTM	CNN (UNet); RNN (LSTM); Integrated Model; Optical RS	Detecting Urban Changes With Recurrent Neural Networks From Multitemporal Sentinel-2 Data, IGARSS, 2019. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model] and [code]	Pytorch+Python3.6
CDMI-Net	CNN (Unet); Pure-Siamese; Multiple Instance Learning; Landslide Mapping; Optical RS	Deep multiple instance learning for landslide mapping, GRSL, 2020. [paper] [code, pre-trained model]	Pytorch+Python3.6
DSFANet	DNN; Unsupervised; Pre-classification; Slow Feature Analysis; Optical RS	Unsupervised deep slow feature analysis for change detection in multi-temporal remote sensing images, TGRS, 2019. [paper] [code, dataset]	TensorFlow 1.7
CD-UNet++	CNN (improved UNet++); Direct Classification; Optical RS	End-to-end change detection for high resolution satellite images using improved UNet++, RS, 2019. [paper] [code]	TensorFlow+Keras
SiameseNet	CNN (VGG16); Pure-Siamese; Optical RS	Siamese network with multi-level features for patch-based change detection in satellite imagery, GlobalSIP, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset]	TensorFlow+Keras
Re3FCN	CNN (ConvLSTM); PCA; 3D convolution; Multi-class changes; Optical RS; Hyperspectral	Change detection in hyperspectral images using recurrent 3D fully convolutional networks, RS, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset]	TensorFlow+Keras
FC-EF, FC-Siam-conc, FC-Siam-diff	CNN (UNet); Pure-Siamese; Optical RS	Fully convolutional siamese networks for change detection, ICIP, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset]	Pytorch
CosimNet	CNN (Deeplab v2); Pure-Siamese; Streetview	Learning to measure changes: fully convolutional siamese metric networks for scene change detection, arXiv, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	Pytorch+Python2.7
Mask R-CNN	Mask R-CNN (ResNet-101); Transfer Learning; Post-Classification; Optical RS	Slum segmentation and change detection: a deep learning approach, NIPS, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset, pre-trained model]	TensorFlow+Keras
CaffeNet	CNN (CaffeNet); Unsupervised; Transfer Learning; Optical RS	Convolutional neural network features based change detection in satellite images, IWPR, 2016. [paper] [code, dataset]	TensorFlow+Keras
CWNN	CNN (CWNN); Unsupervised; Pre-Classification; SAR	Sea ice change detection in SAR images based on convolutional-wavelet neural networks, GRSL, 2019. [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab
MLFN	CNN (DenseNet); Transfer learning; SAR	Transferred deep learning for sea ice change detection from synthetic aperture radar images, GRSL, 2019. [paper] [code, dataset]	Caffe+Matlab
GarborPCANet	CNN (PCANet); Unsupervised; Pre-Classification; Gabor Wavelets; SAR	Automatic change detection in synthetic aperture radar images based on PCANet, GRSL, 2016. [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab
Ms-CapsNet	CNN (Ms-CapsNet); Capsule; Attention Mechanism; Adaptive Fusion Convolution; SAR	Change detection in SAR images based on multiscale capsule network, GRSL, 2020. [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab+Keras2.16
DCNet	CNN; Unsupervised; Pre-Classification; SAR	Change detection from synthetic aperture radar images based on channel weighting-based deep cascade network, JSTARS, 2019. [paper] [code, dataset]	Caffe
ChangeNet	CNN; Siamese; StreetView	ChangeNet: a deep learning architecture for visual change detection, ECCV, 2018. [paper] [code, dataset]	Pytorch
Others will be added soon!

2.2 Available codes for traditional methods

Table 2. A list of available codes for traditional change detection methods.

Methods	Keywords	Publication	Implementation
Several Classical Methods	CVA; DPCA; Image Differencing; Image Ratioing; Image Regression; IR-MAD; MAD; PCAkMeans; PCDA; KMeans; OTSU; Fixed Threshold	A toolbox for remote sensing change detection. [code]	Matlab
Matlab Toolbox Change Detection	IR-MAD; IT-PCA; ERM; ICM	A toolbox for unsupervised change detection analysis, IJRS, 2016.[paper] [code]	Matlab
RFR,SVR,GPR	Unsupervised; Image Regression; Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	Unsupervised image regression for heterogeneous change detection, TGRS, 2019. [paper] [code]	Matlab
HPT	Unsupervised; Transformation; Heterogeneous; Optical RS; SAR	Change detection in heterogenous remote sensing images via homogeneous pixel transformation, TIP, 2018. [paper] [re-implementation code]	Matlab
kCCA	Canonical Correlation Analysis; Cross-Sensor; Optical RS	Spectral alignment of multi-temporal cross-sensor images with automated kernel correlation analysis, IJPRS, 2015. [paper] [code]	Matlab
Ker. Diff. RBF	Unsupervised; K-means; Optical RS	Unsupervised change detection with kernels, GRSL, 2012. [paper] [code]	Matlab
FDA-RM	DI-based; Frequency-Domain Analysis; Random Multigraphs; SAR	Synthetic aperture radar image change detection based on frequency domain analysis and random multigraphs, JARS, 2018. [paper] [code]	Matlab
CD-NR-ELM	DI-based; Pre-Classification; Extreme Learning Machine; SAR	Change detection from synthetic aperture radar images based on neighborhood-based ratio and extreme learning machine, JARS, 2016. [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab
None	Likelihood Ratio; Test Statistic; SAR	Change detection in polarimetric SAR images, 2015. [report] [code]	Python
PCA K-Means	Unsupervised; DI-based; PCA; K Means; Optical RS	Unsupervised Change Detection in Satellite Images Using Principal Component Analysis and k-Means Clustering, GRSL, 2009. [paper] [re-implementation code, dataset] or [re-implementation code]	Matlab
PTCD	Tensor; Hyperspectral Optical RS	Three-Order Tucker Decomposition and Reconstruction Detector for Unsupervised Hyperspectral Change Detection. JSTARS, 2021. [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab
GBF-CD	Data Fusion; Graph; EM; KI;	Graph-Based Data Fusion Applied to: Change Detection and Biomass Estimation in Rice Crops. Remote Sensing, 2020 [paper] [code, dataset]	Matlab
Others will be added soon!

3. Open datasets

Currently, there are some freely available data sets for change detection, which can be used as benchmark datasets for AI training and accuracy evaluation in future research. Detailed information is presented in Table 3.

Table 3. A list of open datasets for change detection.

Type	Data set	Description
Optical RS	DSIFN Dataset [25]	6 bi-temporal high resolution images from Google Earth. There are 3600 image pairs with size of 512 × 512 for training, 340 for validation, and 48 for test. [Download]
	S2MTCP [26]	1520 Sentinel-2 level 1C image pairs focused on urban areas around the world, with 10m spatial resolution and the size of 600x600 pixels. Geometric or radiometric corrections are not performed. [Download]
	SYSU-CD [27]	20000 pairs of 0.5-m aerial images of size 256×256 taken between the years 2007 and 2014 in Hong Kong, including 6 change types: (a) newly built urban buildings; (b) suburban dilation; (c) groundwork before construction; (d) change of vegetation; (e) road expansion; (f) sea construction. [Download]
	S2Looking [28]	Building change detection dataset consists of 5000 registered bitemporal image pairs (size of 1024*1024, 0.5 ~ 0.8 m/pixel) of rural areas throughout the world and more than 65,920 annotated change instances, separately indicating the newly built and demolished building [Download]
	Synthetic and real images Dataset [29]	The database contains 12,000 triples of synthetic images without object shift, 12,000 triples of model images with object shift and 16,000 triples of fragments of real remote sensing images. Performed tests have shown that the proposed CNN is promising and efficient enough in change detection on synthetic and real images [Download]
	SEmantic Change detectiON Dataset (SECOND) [24]	a pixel-level annotated semantic change detection dataset, including 4662 pairs of aerial images with 512 x 512 pixels from several platforms and sensors, covering Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Shanghai. It focus on 6 main land-cover classes, i.e. , non-vegetated ground surface, tree, low vegetation, water, buildings and playgrounds , that are frequently involved in natural and man-made geographical changes. [Download]
	Hyperspectral change detection dataset [1]	3 different hyperspectral scenes acquired by AVIRIS or HYPERION sensor, with 224 or 242 spectral bands, labeled 5 types of changes related with crop transitions at pixel level. [Download]
	River HSIs dataset [2]	2 HSIs in Jiangsu province, China, with 198 bands, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	HRSCD [3]	291 co-registered pairs of RGB aerial images, with pixel-level change and land cover annotations, providing hierarchical level change labels, for example, level 1 labels include five classes: no information, artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, wetlands, and water. [Download]
	WHU building dataset [4]	2-period aerial images containing 12,796 buildings, provided along with building vector and raster maps. [Download]
	SZTAKI Air change benchmark [5, 6]	13 aerial image pairs with 1.5 m spatial resolution, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	OSCD [7]	24 pairs of multispectral images acquired by Sentinel-2, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	Change detection dataset [8]	4 pairs of multispectral images with different spatial resolutions, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	MtS-WH [9]	2 large-size VHR images acquired by IKONOS sensors, with 4 bands and 1 m spatial resolution, labeled 5 types of changes (i.e., parking, sparse houses, residential region, and vegetation region) at scene level. [Download]
	ABCD [10]	16,950 pairs of RGB aerial images for detecting washed buildings by tsunami, labeled damaged buildings at scene level. [Download]
	xBD [11]	Pre- and post-disaster satellite imageries for building damage assessment, with over 850,000 building polygons from 6 disaster types, labeled at pixel level with 4 damage scales. [Download]
	AICD [12]	1000 pairs of synthetic aerial images with artificial changes generated with a rendering engine, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	Database of synthetic and real images [13]	24,000 synthetic images and 16,000 fragments of real season-varying RS images obtained by Google Earth, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	LEVIR-CD [14]	637 very high-resolution (VHR, 0.5m/pixel) Google Earth (GE) image patch pairs with a size of 1024 × 1024 pixels and contains a total of 31,333 individual change building instances, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	Bastrop fire dataset [21]	4 images acquired by different sensors over the Bastrop County, Texas (USA). It is composed by a Landsat 5 TM as the pre-event image and a Landsat 5 TM, a EO-1 ALI and a Landsat 8 as post-event images, labeled as changed and unchanged at pixel level, mainly caused by wildfire. [Download]
	Google data set [23]	19 season-varying VHR images pairswith 3 bands of red, green, and blue, a spatial resolution of 0.55 m, and the size ranging from 1006×1168 pixels to 4936×5224 pixels. The image changes include waters, roads, farmland, bare land, forests, buildings, ships, etc. Buildings make up the main changes. acquired during the periods between 2006 and 2019, covering the suburb areas of Guangzhou City, China. [Download]
Optical RS & SAR	California dataset [22]	3 images, including a RS image captured by Landsat 8 with 9 channels on 2017, a SAR image captured by Sentinel-1A (recorded in polarisations VV and VH) after the occurrence of a flood, and a ground truth map. [Download]
	Homogeneous CD Dataset [30]	6 scenarios: Scenario 1 with two single-polarizationSAR data sets; Scenario 2 with two PolSAR data sets; Scenario 3 with two optical image data sets. HeterogeneousCD: Scenario 4 with two SAR/optical (multispectral) datasets; Scenario 5 with two multispectral data sets of differentbands acquired from different sensors; Scenario 6 with twoPolSAR/optical (multispectral) data sets. [Download]
Street view	VL-CMU-CD [15]	1362 co-registered pairs of RGB and depth images, labeled ground truth change (e.g., bin, sign, vehicle, refuse, construction, traffic cone, person/cycle, barrier) and sky masks at pixel level. [Download]
	PCD 2015 [16]	200 panoramic image pairs in "TSUNAMI" and "GSV" subset, with the size of 224 × 1024 pixels, label as changed and unchanged at pixel level. [Download]
	Change detection dataset [17]	Image sequences of city streets captured by a vehicle-mounted camera at two different time points, with the size of 5000 × 2500 pixels, labeled 3D scene structure changes at pixel level. [Download]
CV	CDNet 2012 [18]	6 video categories with 4 to 6 videos sequences in each category, and the groundtruth images contain 5 labels namely: static, hard shadow, outside region of interest, unknown motion (usually around moving objects, due to semi-transparency and motion blur), and motion. [Download]
	CDNet 2014 [19,20]	22 additional videos (∼70; 000 pixel-wise annotated frames) spanning 5 new categories that incorporate challenges encountered in many surveillance settings, and provides realistic, camera captured (without CGI), diverse set of indoor and outdoor videos like the CDnet 2012. [Download]
	ChangeSim [31]	a challenging dataset aimed at online scene change detection and more, collecting in photo-realistic simulation environments with the presence of environmental non-targeted variations, such as air turbidity and light condition changes, as well as targeted object changes in industrial indoor environments. [Download]
	More video datasets

It can be seen that the amount of open datasets that can be used for change detection tasks is small, and some of them have small data sizes. At present, there is still a lack of large SAR datasets that can be used for AI training. Most AI-based change detection methods are based on several SAR data sets that contain limited types of changes, e.g., the Bern dataset, the Ottawa dataset, the Yellow River dataset, and the Mexico dataset, which cannot meet the needs of change detection in areas with complex land cover and various change types. Moreover, their labels are not freely available. Street-view datasets are generally used for research of AI-based change detection methods in computer vision (CV). In CV, change detection based on pictures or video is also a hot research field, and the basic idea is consistent with that based on RS data. Therefore, in addition to street view image datasets, several video datasets in CV can also be used for research on AI-based change detection methods, such as CDNet 2012 and CDNet 2014.

4. Applications

The development of AI-based change detection techniques has greatly facilitated many applications and has improved their automation and intelligence. Most AI-based change detection generates binary maps, and these studies only focus on the algorithm itself, without a specific application field. Therefore, it can be considered that they are generally suitable for LULC change detection. In this section, we focus on the techniques that are associated with specific applications, and they can be broadly divided into four categories:

• Urban contexts: urban expansion, public space management, and building change detection;
• Resources and environment: human-driven environmental changes, hydro-environmental changes, sea ice, surface water, and forest monitoring;
• Natural disasters: landslide mapping and damage assessment;
• Astronomy: planetary surfaces.

We provide an overview of the various change detection techniques in the literature for the different application categories. The works and data types associated with these applications are listed in Table 4.

Table 4. Summary of main applications of AI-based change detection techniques.

Applications		Data Types	Papers
Urban contexts	Urban expansion	Satellite images	Lyu et.al (2018), Tong et.al (2007)
		SAR images	Iino et.al (2017)
	Public space management	Street view images	Varghese et.al (2018)
	Road surface	UAV images	Truong et.al (2020)
	Building change detection	Aerial images	Ji et.al (2019), Sun et.al (2019), Nemoto et.al (2017)
		Satellite images	Huang et.al (2019), Zhu et.al (2018)
		Satellite/Aerial images	Jiang et.al (2020), Ji et.al (2018), Saha et.al (2020)
		Airborne laser scanning data and aerial images	Zhang et.al (2019)
		SAR images	Jaturapitpornchai et.al (2019)
		Satellite images and GIS map	Ghaffarian et.al (2019)
Resources & environment	Human-driven environmental changes	Satellite images	Chen et.al (2016)
	Hydro-environmental changes	Satellite images	Nourani et.al (2018)
	Sea ice	SAR images	Gao et.al (2019), Gao et.al (2019)
	Surface water	Satellite images	Song et.al (2019), Rokni et.al (2015)
	Forest monitoring	Satellite images	Khan et.al (2017), Lindquist et.al (2016), Deilmai et.al (2014), Woodcock et.al (2001), Gopal et.al (1996)
Natural disasters	Landslide mapping	Aerial images	Fang et.al (2020), Lei et.al (2019)
		Satellite images	Chen et.al (2018), Ding et.al (2016), Tarantino et.al (2006)
	Damage assessment	Satellite images	caused by tsunami [Sublime et.al (2019),Singh et.al (2015)], particular incident [Hedjam et.al (2019)], flood [Peng et.al (2019)], or earthquake [Ji et.al (2019)]
		Aerial images	caused by tsunami [Fujita et.al (2017)]
		SAR images	caused by fires [Planinšič et.al (2018)], or earthquake [Saha et.al (2018)]
		Street view images	caused by tsunami [Sakurada et.al (2015)]
		Street view images and GIS map	caused by tsunami [Sakurada et.al (2017)]
Astronomy	Planetary surfaces	Satellite images	Kerner et.al (2019)

5. Software programs

There are currently a large number of software with change detection tools, and we have a brief summary of them, see table 5.

Table 5. A list of software for change detection.

Type	Name	Description
Commercial	ERDAS IMAGINE	provides true value, consolidating remote sensing, photogrammetry, LiDAR analysis, basic vector analysis, and radar processing into a single product, including a variety of change detection tools.
	ArcGIS	change detection can be calculate between two raster datasets by using the raster calculator tool or deep learning workflow.
	ENVI	provides change detection analysis tools and the ENVI deep learning module.
	eCognition	can be used for a variety of change mapping, and by leveraging deep learning technology from the Google TensorFlow™ library, eCognition empowers customers with highly sophisticated pattern recognition and correlation tools that automate the classification of objects of interest for faster and more accurate results, more.
	PCI Geomatica	provides change detection tools, and can be useful in numerous circumstances in which you may want to analyze change, such as: storm damage, forest-fire damage, flooding, urban sprawl, and more.
	SenseTime	SenseRemote remote sensing intelligent solutions
Open source	QGIS	provides many change detection tools.
	Orfeo ToolBox	change detection by multivariate alteration detector (MAD) algorithm.
	Change Detection ToolBox	MATLAB toolbox for remote sensing change detection.

6. Review papers for change detection

The following papers are helpful for researchers to better understand this field of remote sensing change detection, see table 6.

Table 6. A list of review papers on change detection.

Published year	Review paper
1989	Digital change detection techniques using remotely sensed data, IJRS. [paper]
2004	Digital change detection methods in ecosystem monitoring: a review, IJRS. [paper]
2004	Change detection techniques, IJRS. [paper]
2012	Object-based change detection, IJRS. [paper]
2013	Change detection from remotely sensed images: From pixel-based to object-based approaches, ISPRS. [paper]
2016	3D change detection–approaches and applications, ISPRS. [paper]
2016	Deep learning for remote sensing data a technical tutorial on the state of the art, MGRS. [paper]
2017	Comprehensive survey of deep learning in remote sensing: theories, tools, and challenges for the community, JRS. [paper]
2017	Deep Learning in Remote Sensing, MGRS. [paper]
2018	Computational intelligence in optical remote sensing image processing, ASOC. [paper]
2019	A review of change detection in multitemporal hyperspectral images: current techniques, applications, and challenges, MGRS. [paper]
2019	Deep learning in remote sensing applications: A meta-analysis and review, ISPRS. [paper]
2020	Deep Learning for change detection in remote sensing images: comprehensive review and meta-analysis, arXiv. [paper]
2020	Change detection based on artificial intelligence: state-of-the-art and challenges, RS. [paper]

7. Reference

[1] Hyperspectral Change Detection Dataset. Available online: https://citius.usc.es/investigacion/datasets/hyperspectral-change-detection-dataset (accessed on 4 May 2020).

[2] Wang, Q.; Yuan, Z.; Du, Q.; Li, X. GETNET: A General End-to-End 2-D CNN Framework for Hyperspectral Image Change Detection. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 2018, 57, 3–13. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]

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[5] Benedek, C.; Sziranyi, T. Change Detection in Optical Aerial Images by a Multilayer Conditional Mixed Markov Model. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 2009, 47, 3416–3430. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]

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[7] Daudt, R.C.; Le Saux, B.; Boulch, A.; Gousseau, Y. Urban change detection for multispectral earth observation using convolutional neural networks. In Proceedings of the IGARSS 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Valencia, Spain, 22–27 July 2018; pp. 2115–2118. [Google Scholar]

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Cite

If you find this review helpful to you, please consider citing our paper. [Open Access]

@Article{rs12101688,
AUTHOR = {Shi, Wenzhong and Zhang, Min and Zhang, Rui and Chen, Shanxiong and Zhan, Zhao},
TITLE = {Change Detection Based on Artificial Intelligence: State-of-the-Art and Challenges},
JOURNAL = {Remote Sensing},
VOLUME = {12},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {10},
ARTICLE-NUMBER = {1688},
URL = {https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/10/1688},
ISSN = {2072-4292},
DOI = {10.3390/rs12101688}
}

Note

This list will be updated in time, and volunteer contributions are welcome. For questions or sharing, please feel free to contact us or make issues.

Reference materials:

• I-Hope-Peace/ChangeDetectionRepository
• Michele Volpi personal research page
• llu025/Heterogeneous_CD
• wenhwu/awesome-remote-sensing-change-detection
• neverstoplearn/remote_sensing_change_detection
• Change Detection in GIS
• Gao Feng personal research page
• Bobholamovic/ChangeDetectionToolbox