A Spatial Clustering Procedure for Multi-Image Data

A spatial clustering procedure applicable to multi-spectral image data is discussed. The procedure takes into account the spatial distribution of the measurements as well as their distribution in measurement space. The procedure calls for the generation and then thresholding of the gradient image, cleaning the thresholded image, labeling the connected regions in the cleaned image, and clustering the labeled regions. An experiment was carried out on ERTS data in order to study the effect of the selection of the gradient image, the threshold, and the cleaning process. Three gradients, three gradient thresholds, and two cleaning parameters yielded 18 gradient-thresholds combinations. The combination that yielded connected homogeneous regions with the smallest variance was Robert's gradient with distance 2, thresholded by its running mean, and a cleaning process that considered a resolution cell to be homogeneous if and only if at least 7 of its nearest neighbors were homogeneous.