The invention discloses a saliency-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image airfield runway edge detection method, which comprises the following implementation steps: (1) reading in image data; (2) carrying out median filtering on the image data which is read in; (3) carrying out enhanced processing on a filtered and de-noised image; (4) obtaining a salient map of the processed image; (5) rejecting a noisy background area on the basis of the saliency information of the salient map; (6) obtaining a seed growth point to carry out region growing; (7) carrying out aftertreatment; and (8) carrying out edge positioning. According to the saliency-based SAR image airfield runway edge detection method, the airfield runway edge can be quickly detected, the airfield runway edge information can be favorably kept, meanwhile, the interference of the noisy background area is avoided, and the saliency-based SAR image airfield runway edge detection method has better instantaneity and higher detection precision and can be applied to the SAR image airfield runway edge detection.