Retrieval of similar topographic areas

Image processing and understanding and further pattern recognition comprises a precious tool for the automatic extraction of information using digital topography. The aim of this work is the retrieval of areas with similar topography using digital elevation data. It can be applied to geomorphology, forestry, regional and urban planning, and many other applications for analyzing and managing natural resources. In specifics, the user selects the area of interest, navigating overhead a high resolution elevation image and determines two (3) parameters (step, number of local minima and display scale). Furthermore the regions with similar relief to the initial model are determined. Experimental results show high efficiency of the proposed scheme.