Spatial statistical techniques for aggregating point objects extracted from high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery

Trisalyn Nelson, K. Olaf Niemann and Michael A. Wulder
Additional contact information
Trisalyn Nelson: Wilfrid Laurier University, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5, Canada
K. Olaf Niemann: University of Victoria, Department of Geography, P.O. Box 3050, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P5, Canada
Michael A. Wulder: Canadian Forest Service (Pacific Forestry Centre), Natural Resources Canada, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada (e-mail: mwulder@pfc.forestry.ca)

Journal of Geographical Systems, 2002, vol. 4, issue 4, 423-433

Abstract: Abstract. Using a local maximum filter, individual trees were extracted from a 1 m spatial resolution IKONOS image and represented as points. The spatial pattern of individual trees was determined to represent forest age (a surrogate for forest structure). Point attributes, based on the spatial pattern of trees, were generated via nearest neighbour statistics and used as the basis for aggregating points into forest structure units. The forest structure units allowed for the mapping of a forested area into one of three age categories: young (1–20 years), intermediate (21–120 years), and mature (>120 years). This research indicates a new approach to image processing, where objects generated from the processing of image data (rather than pixels or spectral values) are subjected to spatial statistical analysis to estimate an attribute relating an aspect of forest structure.

Keywords: Key words: Nearest neighbour statistics; aggregation; generalisation; feature extraction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s101090300092 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jgeosy:v:4:y:2002:i:4:d:10.1007_s101090300092

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/10109/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s101090300092

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Geographical Systems is currently edited by Manfred M. Fischer and Antonio Páez

More articles in Journal of Geographical Systems from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().