Traffic observation from airplane platforms using digital cameras is a fairly new application of Video Image Detection Systems (VIDS). These systems are also particularly interesting for observations at major events or in catastrophe situations. Applied systems are small or medium-sized panchromatic cameras. In order to concentrate on road image processing algorithms were applied to distinguish between urban and surrounding vegetation areas. Therefore texture-based segmentation seems to be an adequate approach, because of the panchromatic images. Attention is focused on MRF, which are examined concerning their use for texture based extraction of street space in aerial photographs.