Guided Super-Resolution of Digital Elevation Models with Diffusion-Based Image Generators — Paper

Abstract

High-resolution digital surface models (DSMs) play an important role in urban analysis, 3D building reconstruction, and infrastructure monitoring, yet their availability remains limited due to the high cost and complexity of data acquisition. In contrast, coarse DSMs from commercial satellite missions are widely accessible, and high-resolution optical imagery is increasingly available from aerial and satellite platforms. We address the resulting mismatch in spatial resolution and propose a DSM superresolution approach that enhances 5 m DSMs to 0.5 m resolution, using guidance from high-resolution spectral images. Our method employs denoising diffusion to transfer information that is visible only in the image, like crisp outlines and detailed roof structures, into the elevation maps. In this way, surface details are reconstructed more accurately than with conventional interpolation or filtering techniques. Experiments on several cities in Central Europe demonstrate that the proposed approach produces high-quality DSMs with improved structural detail and accurate surface geometry. Our results highlight the potential of guided super-resolution with foundational image priors as a means of reconstructing high-resolution surface models.

Authors 6

Armand Mihai Nicolicioiu, Dominik Narnhofer, Nando Metzger, Daniel Panangian, Ksenia Bittner, Konrad Schindler

Specification

Official page: arxiv.org/abs/2609.11886
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
Arxiv announce type: new
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
arXiv id: 2609.11886
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
Categories: cs.CV
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
PDF: arxiv.org/pdf/2609.11886
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
Primary category: cs.CV
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh
Published: 11 Sept 2026
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 2 h agohigh

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T19

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2 h ago

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Authors: Armand Mihai Nicolicioiu, Dominik Narnhofer, Nando Metzger

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Value	Valid from → to	Status	Source	Confidence	Extractor
11 Sept 2026	11 Sept 2026 21:03 UTC → current	current	arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1	high	deterministic

Claims are temporal and append-only: a new observation closes the previous claim (valid_to) instead of overwriting it. Conflicting claims from different sources are kept side by side and flagged — never averaged. Methodology →

11 Sept 2026
New paperPaperGuided Super-Resolution of Digital Elevation Models with Diffusion-Based Image Generators
New paper: Guided Super-Resolution of Digital Elevation Models with Diffusion-Based Image Generators
arxiv
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Source	Document	Type	Tier	Last observed	Snapshots
arXiv (Atom API + RSS)	rss.arxiv.org/rss/cs.CV	feed	T1· Official	2 h ago	1

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