改革开放以来，快速的城市化给社会、经济和环境带来了巨大的影响。为了研究城市化的成因和影响，许多学者提出了不同的指标来量化城市化过程。一方面，这些指标大多是从统计年鉴和普查数据中获取的，而这些数据存在连续性差、精确度低、空间信息少等问题，无法准确地描述城市化过程。另一方面，遥感图像包含丰富的关于城市形态、土地组成和社会经济的信息，可以很好地弥补传统数据的不足。因此，研究如何从遥感图像中提取城市化信息，并有效地用于城市化研究具有重要意义。 / 基于中国的城市化特点，本文分别从不同方面深入研究了从遥感图像中提取城市化指标的方法，并且通过这些指标分析了中国在过去二十年间的城市化发展特点。 / 首先，从社会经济发展的角度，本文分析了从夜晚灯光影像提取的遥感指标和社会经济学指标之间的时空关系。分析表明，城市内夜晚灯光的总量可以反映城市化的整体水平，而灯光覆盖区域的平均亮度可以较好反映城市化的总体强度，同时，灯光对城市化的响应会随着区域内亮度的增加而减弱。根据此灯光指标，我们发现在过去的二十年中，具有政治优势和地理优势的城市发展得更快。此外，与内陆其他地区相比，沿海地区的城市发展更加紧凑。 / 其次，从城市建成区面积的角度，本文提出了一种新的城市建成区提取方法，能够较准确地获取城市级的建成区序列。研究表明，从夜晚灯光影像中提取建成区时所选取的阈值会随年份和城市而变化，并且该阈值和城市的经济水平有显著的相关性。根据获取的建成区序列，我们研究了中国城市建成区的扩张特征，结果显示所有城市都表现出明显的扩张特征，该特征在沿海城市、省会城市和经济特区内尤其显著。 / 第三，从城市的空间结构变化角度，本文探讨了如何通过遥感影像量化城市的空间结构，以及如何利用这些量化信息来研究城市圈的发展过程。针对中国三大城市圈，本文比较了不同的遥感图像提取空间结构的特点，并且结合了景观生态学指数、帕雷托分布和梯度分析来研究城市圈内的城市之间的联系、分布和相互影响，发现不同城市圈的发展模式和驱动因素各有差异，具有很强的区域发展特点。 / 第四，从城市扩张形态的角度，本文从夜晚灯光影像中提取了两组指标来量化城市扩张程度。这两组指标分别从某一时间点的城市发展空间形态，以及一段时间内的城市增长模式来测量这一现象。结果显示，中国不同城市圈之间的城市扩张具有不同的特点。 / China has been undergoing rapid urbanization since the "open door" policy in 1978. The fast process of urbanization has significantly influenced its society, economy, and environment. To quantify and describe this process, various indicators of urbanization, which are usually extracted from statistical yearbook and census data, have been adopted. However, these data sets are usually inconsistent, problematic, and cannot depict the spatial information of urbanization. Therefore, remote sensing images are usually employed as complementary datasets. / However, the existing studies remain insufficient for understanding how the information of urbanization can be extracted from remote sensing imagery and used properly, especially for China, where urbanization has unique characteristics. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore the usage of remote sensing techniques to further observe the process of urbanization and from four different perspectives. / From the perspective of socioeconomic development, we analyze the spatial-temporal relationship between indicators derived from NTL images and the socio-economic indicators of urbanization. The results of the analysis indicate that the summed lights in a city can represent the overall level of urbanization and that the average light of lit-up areas can reflect the density of urbanization. Meanwhile, when the amount of NTL approaches saturation, it becomes a less sensitive reflection of the level of urbanization. The proper NTL indicator has then been utilized on the analysis of urbanization in China’s cities during the last 20 years, and the results reveal that the cities with political and geographical advantages have higher levels of urban development. Meanwhile, the cities in metropolitan areas and the Shandong province have undergone a more compact urbanization process than some inland cities. / Second, from the perspective of urban expansion, we extract the time series of urban built-up areas at the city level via a newly-proposed thresholding technique on the calibrated time series of NTL images. The threshold for extracting built-up areas has been found to vary across different cities and years, and it has high correlations with the level of economic development. We then analyze the urban expansion in Chinese cities based on prefecture cities in three provinces of south China. The results indicate that urban expansion occurred in all cities from 1992 to 2010, especially in coastal cities, capital cities, and cities in special economic zones. / Third, from the perspective of spatial pattern evolution, we explored how to quantify the urban spatial pattern, and use it to study the evolution of metropolitan areas. We compare the discrepancies of various remote sensing images in describing spatial patterns and combine the landscape metrics, Pareto distribution, and gradient analysis to explore growth type, distribution, and reaction of cities in metropolitan areas. Moreover, based on the comparison of the spatial patterns among three of the largest metropolitan areas of China during the last twenty years, we find that the driving force and growth type vary over metropolitan areas and that each area has its own regional characteristics. / Fourth, from the perspective of urban sprawl, we introduced two sets of indicators, which can measure urban sprawl both as a certain spatial pattern of urban development and as a type of urban growth, that quantify urban sprawl based on NTL imagery. The results present the degree of urban sprawl in various metropolitan areas in China. / Overall, this thesis extends our understanding on how to use information derived from remote sensing as a proxy for studies on urbanization. Moreover, urbanization in China is scrutinized by remote sensing indicators. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Liu, Lu. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-190). / Abstracts also in Chinese.

In this thesis, the author has explored the feasibility of 3D visibility analysis for visual quality assessment via the aid of modelling tools, virtual geographic environment (VGE) and WebGIS, which may be beneficial to build a measurable evaluating standard of visual environment in urban open spaces, and referential to create an atmosphere with improved visual comfort in guiding planning or design processing. Considered as long-term significance, 3D visibility analysis for visual quality assessment is potential in enabling the quantitative analysis between urban open spaces and visual perception of human, providing appropriate standard for evaluation of visual environment, and bringing the future urban planning and design fields into rational and reasonable. / Due to the development of 3D modelling software and VGE, their applications have been attempted in 3D visibility analysis by a few previous scholars, exploring the possibility of representation for urban environment in 3D and the feasibility of spatial relationship analysis with visual factors. Lots of progress has been made with the participation of the modelling software such as AutoCAD and 3Ds Max, or analytical platforms such as ArcGIS and VGE. As the extension of preceding study, the author is going to discuss improvements and innovations of some tools applied in visibility analysis and visual quality computation, such as Open Simulator as a VGE Platform. Moreover, due to the easy access for entry-level programmer and the public, Google SketchUp (a type of modelling software) and WebGIS have also been tested whether suitable for the analysis handling, considerably decreasing the programming development difficulty. Both SketchUp and WebGIS are thought to be well accepted by thepublic, as SketchUp has been popularised in 3D modelling and WebGIS has been familiar as the form of websites for a long period, which may enable the dissemination of visibility analysis to the public. / From a pilot study of progresses based on the researches of past scholars, the author developed an improved method for 3D visibility analysis, by mathematically deriving the visual factors from the spatial relationship analysis of buildings, terrain and other geographical features. A few quantitative factors as the distance, solid angle and visual field (a distribution of occupied solid angle in all directions) valued in spherical coordinate system were adopted as the basic units for visibility levels. Starting from the space prototype, the research has also focused on several aspects possibly associated to the visual effects in open spaces, including the openness, enclosure and ground coverage for edge, the distribution and dispersion for skyline, and the visibility of individual building for landmark. For further comparison, the variances of those figures were also noticed during space scales changing for the prototype, in order to find possible connection or changing trend before and after. Moreover, experiments of 3D visibility analysis have been designed and put into practice for real scenes to discover the similarities or differences among prototypical spaces and reality, and Piazza del Campo (Siena, Italy), Piazza San Marco (Venice, Italy) and Olomouc centre area (Olomouc, Czech) have been selected as the first group of candidates. As a complementary study, the central campus area of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) were also taken into consideration as an experimental site, for comparison of disparities with those classical scenes. Those would be possible references for conclusion of similarity or discrepancy among various spaces, in order to find out spatial general pattern, or reveal the actual affections of visual factor values in the reality. / 在本論文中，作者基於建模工具、虛擬地理環境和网络地理信息系統（WebGIS），對三維可視性分析和視覺評估的可行性進行了探討。概括而言，這項探討將有助於在城市開放空間可評估測量屬性的輔助下實施城市規劃和設計，以期打造具有更佳視覺舒適性的城市環境。而從長遠意義上考量，三維可視性分析和視覺評估亦是實現城市開放空間和視覺感知之間聯繫的定量分析前提，並為城市環境評價提供適當標準，使今後的規劃和設計更趨理性。 / 由於三維建模軟件和虛擬地理環境的發展，部分學者已在三維可視性分析中進行些許嘗試，試圖了解在城市環境中的三維空間關係與視覺因素進行相關分析的可行性。且在此研究之前，部分實驗已於個別建模軟件如AutoCAD和3ds Max、或分析平台如ArcGIS和虛擬地理環境中取得可觀進展。基於以上前人的成就，筆者一方面期望在分析工具上進行適度革新，另一方面追尋可視性分析和視覺評估算法上改進的可能，從而在本文中做出個人領域上的創新。在此之中，考慮到入門難易程度和公眾接納程度，筆者採納了若干開發難度較低的工具相互搭配，如谷歌草图大师（Google SketchUp，一種輕量級建模軟件）、Open Simulator（虛擬地擬環境平台）和网络地理信息系統，來輔助進行城市開放空間的可視性分析。谷歌草图大师常被用作於平民化的三維建模，Open Simulator可提供形象化的現實模擬和交互環境，而WebGIS以眾人熟知的網站形式進行交互操作，這些工具在大眾中擁有較高的普及程度和較低的接納門檻，同時亦為可視性分析在大眾中普及提供了一定的可能。 / 而從三維可視性分析的方法改進上，筆者基於先前學者的部分試點研究，在數學推導上對地形、建築物等地理特徵產生空間關係的計算方法提供合理改進。基於球坐標系，作者用距離、球面度和視角分佈（各方向上視角的分佈）等量化數值為城市開放空間進行基本可視單元的度量；亦從空間原型出發，研究集中討論了若干視覺效果，如開放度、圍合度和地面覆蓋度，天際線的分佈和離散程度，個別建築物的可視性分佈等，在城市開放空間可視效果度量上的作用。此外，通過進一步比較各空間之間可視數值上的差異，量化地去理解空間的視覺效果差異，並可依照參數變化的對比尋找可能存在的變化趨勢和相關性，對空間的可視性有更深的理解。 / 在本論文的實驗中，作者亦採用了部分真實場景進行三維可視性和視覺評估的分析，以期發現與原型空間相似性或差異性。坎波廣場（意大利錫耶納）、聖馬可廣場（意大利威尼斯）和奧洛穆茨中心區域（捷克奧洛穆茨）作為城市經典空間作為第一批實驗場景，而後續的香港中文大學中央校園作為普通場景的對比亦被納入實驗場景之中，以便進行相似性和差異性的探討。採用真實場景的實驗有助於更好地將現實中城市開放空間的視覺特性與演算結果進行結合，揭示各可視數值的實際表現意義，並在空間原型的相似性上進行合理探討。 / Lin, Tianpeng. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-116). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 05, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Orientador: Anna Silvia Palcheco Peixoto / Banca: Ilza Machado Kaiser / Banca: Ricardo Molto Pereira / Resumo: A ocorrência de contaminação por disposição inadequada de resíduos acarreta danos ambientais de difícil reversão e também riscos à saúde pública. No estado de São Paulo, é permitido para municípios de pequeno porte, que geram até 10 toneladas diárias de resíduos sólidos urbanos, o licenciamento de aterros em valas em conformidade com a norma brasileira. Na maioria dos casos, não é obrigatório executar dispositivos de proteção ambiental como impermeabilização do solo e drenagem de chorume e gases. Portanto, o objetivo dessa pesquisa foi avaliar o perigo de contaminação de solo em função deste sistema através da identificação de fatores ambientais e antrópicos relevantes. Realizou-se uma consulta a especialistas em que se aplicou nota de Nível de Perigo (NP) para os fatores Geologia, Pedologia, Geomorfologia, Hidrografia, Águas Subterrâneas, APA, Uso do Solo, Composição Gravimétrica e Densidades Demográficas. Foi definida como área de estudo a UGRHI 16, onde foram identificados 3 aterros com NP "Muito Alto", 7 com NP "Alto", 2 com NP "Médio" e 5 com NP "Baixo". Verificou-se também, que todos os municípios estudados possuem dispensa de impermeabilização dos seus aterros conforme a norma, pois seus Excedentes Hídricos atendem ao limite estabelecido. Porém, esta avaliação considerou outros fatores importantes, constatando a existência de perigo em diferentes níveis para todos os municípios avaliados com relação à adoção de aterros em valas. Dessa maneira, conclui-se que os fatores... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The occurrence of contamination by improper disposal of waste leads to environmental damage of difficult reversion and also to risks to public health. In São Paulo, it is allowed municipal solid waste landfill licensing in trenches in accordance with the Brazilian standard to small municipalities that generate up to 10 tons per day. In most cases, it is not required to perform environmental protection devices such as soil sealing and drainage of leachate and gases. Therefore, the goal of this research was to evaluate the danger of soil contamination due to this system through the identification of environmental and human factors. It was carried out a experts survey in which it is applied Note Danger Level (NP) to factors including Geology, Pedology, geomorphology, hydrography, Groundwater, Environmental Protection Area, Land Use, Gravimetric Landfill Composition and Demographic Densities. The Water Resources Management Unit (UGRHI 16) was defined as the area of study where they were identified three sites with NP "Very High", 7 NP "High", NP 2 "Medium" and NP 5 "Low". It was also found that all studied municipalities have waterproofing waiver of the landfill as the norm, for their Water Surplus meet the limit. However, the study verified the existence of danger on different levels for all municipalities when it was considered the others factors of this research. Finally, it is concluded that the factors adopted in this research are relevant to decision making on the system to... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The effects of scale influence all aspects of spatial analysis and should be expressly considered early in research planning. Remotely sensed images provide unique landscape perspectives and possess several features amenable to dealing with scale. In particular, images can be segmented into image objects representative of landscape features and structured as nested hierarchies for evaluating landscape patterns across a range of scales. The objectives of this research are to evaluate methods for: 1) characterizing candidate image objects to inform the selection of user-supplied segmentation parameters and 2) exploring the multi-scale structure of landscape patterns for defining and describing potentially important scales for conducting subsequent geospatial and ecological investigations. I followed a recursive strategy to develop an image hierarchy using a corrected version of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVIc) derived from a Landsat ETM+ satellite image over a complex, forested landscape at Lava Cast Forest (LCF), Oregon. At each scale level, I calculated an objective function based on within-object variance and spatial autocorrelation to distinguish between alternative image objects created with the region-merging segmentation algorithm available in the Definiens Developer 7 software. Segmentation quality was considered highest for results exhibiting the lowest overall within-object variance and between-object spatial autocorrelation. I then applied geographical variance analysis to calculate the independent contribution and relative variability of each level in the hierarchy to evaluate the scene's spatial structure across scales. My results reveal overall trends in image object spatial variance consistent with scaling theory, but suggest judging image object quality without sampling the entire range of segmentation parameters is insufficient. Statistical limitations of the spatial autocorrelation coefficient at small sample sizes constrained the number of possible hierarchy levels within the image spatial extent, preventing identification of larger-scale landscape patterns. Geographical variance analysis results show patterns in vegetation conditions at LCF possess a multi-scaled structure. Three levels exhibiting high variance relative to the entire hierarchy coincide with abrupt transitions in the slopes of within-object variance and spatial autocorrelation trends, which I interpreted as scale thresholds potentially important for relating landscape patterns and processes. These methods provide an objective, object-oriented approach for addressing scale issues within heterogeneous landscapes using remote sensing.

No description available.

Geographic information systems (GIS) are developing in a rapidly expanding distributed environment. With the ever-increasing growth of computer networks and the Internet in particular, it is imperative that GIS take advantage of distributed data technologies to provide users and applications with shared and improved access to geographic data.Geographic data distribution design is concerned with determining what data gets placed at which computer network sites and involves the issues of data partitioning, allocation and dynamic migration. Partitioning is concerned with how data, or fragments of the data, are apportioned to partitions. These partitions must then be assigned to network sites in an allocation process. Because data usage and access changes by applications in a dynamic environment, migration strategies are necessary to redistribute the data. In order for data distribution to reflect current usage patterns of applications, the design process must obtain and accumulate data usage information from applications.This dissertation first details the predicate fragmentation (PF) model. The core of the model is the PF tree that has been developed and implemented to store and maintain usage information. User predicates, obtained from application queries, are inserted into the tree and primitive predicates can be identified from the tree. These primitive predicates define the fragmentation from which a data distribution can be determined. Predicate insertion and pruning operations are essential to the maintenance of the tree structure.A methodology that uses the PF model to obtain a partitioning, allocation and migration strategy is then outlined. The fragments identified from the PF trees are aggregated into partitions that are then assigned to individual network sites using a site access allocation strategy. A dynamic migration strategy then uses changes in the PF ++ / trees to identify the data that must be migrated to a new site in order to accommodate the changing application environment.The implementation of the geographic data distribution methodology is referred to as GEODDIS. The methodology was tested and evaluated using a mineral occurrence application called GEOMINE which was developed with the ArcInfo GIS. The results indicate that geographic data distribution performs well when successive applications have similar data usage requirements. The implementation of the geographic data distribution methodology is referred to as GEODDIS. The methodology was tested and evaluated using a mineral occurrence application called GEOMINE which was developed with the ArcInfo GIS. The results indicate that geographic data distribution performs well when successive applications have similar data usage requirements. For applications with very different data usage patterns, the performance decreases to the worst case scenario where all the data must be transferred to the site where it is used. The tree pruning and data migration operations are essential to maintaining a PF tree structure and distribution that reflects the current data usage of applications.

The story of transport and accessibility problems in rural Australia is very similar to other wealthy countries with low rural densities and long distances such as the US and Canada ??? little or no public transport, very high levels of car ownership, and poor service provision. During the past two decades rationalisation and privatisation of services has led to the closure of many basic services in rural Australia. The withdrawal of services has necessitated longer distance travel for many rural residents ??? a problem which has been exacerbated by the rationalisation of public transport services. As a result there have emerged severe accessibility and mobility problems in rural areas, despite the presence of high levels of car ownership in such areas. In terms of rural transportation, the situation in Australia is characterised by two different features; first, poor public transport provision (or non-existence). Second; high levels of car ownership among rural residents. However, high levels of car ownership do not reflect high levels of prosperity; this is likely to indicate a situation of &quotenforced ownership&quot in response to declining levels of public transport provision. Furthermore, many rural residents neither own a car nor have access to a reliable public transport system due to socio-economic and location-based circumstances. Previous research has shown that these residents generally belong to groups who include the elderly, teenagers, students, Indigenous residents, unemployed persons and low-income households. Such groups have been termed transport-disadvantaged. The contention of this thesis, however, is that such groups are in a state of &quottransport need&quot given their range of transport related problems. This is one dimension of the accessibility problem in rural Australia, which has yet to be investigated. This thesis is concerned with the measurement of transport need through the development of several transport need indices using available census data. The key objective of this thesis is to investigate the relevance and suitability of need indices for identifying the relative spatial distribution of transport needs in rural areas. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is used for the development, analysis and visualisation of the transport need index. This thesis examines transportation needs in rural NSW simply by measuring &quotdemand&quot and &quotsupply&quot components of transport. To measure the demand index, some socio-economic characteristics of population are involved including: the elderly, no or low car owning households, Indigenous people, students, children, unemployed persons, low-income households, and accessibility. A weight has been assigned to each component based on its relative importance among the other components. Weighted values are then standardised based on 100. To measure the supply index, six components, which represent the availability of various kinds of transport in rural NSW are involved and have been calculated by assigning weights and standardising to 100. These are: CountryLink rail services, CountryLink coach and bus services, Regional Services, Community Transport Program, Wheelchair taxi services, and School Buses. The final transport need for rural NSW is calculated by dividing demand index by supply index. It simply quantifies transportation needs across the rural Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) of NSW. In addition, this thesis discusses the potential and limitations of GIS and our transport need indices to be used as input to decisions about improvements in provision of services, and coordination of existing services to better meet identified needs, for the transport disadvantaged in rural NSW. In essence, this thesis is an attempt to make Australian transport and social services planners aware of the value of a need based transport-planning methodology.

This thesis investigates the distribution and significance of stream turbidity in Victoria; specifically exploring the factors that may have influenced the pattern of regional variation in turbidity, and factors that give it significance in the regional, social, cultural and environmental context. The limits to water availability are set, not only by the quantity of water in storages or streams but, more fundamentally, by acceptable levels of water quality and catchment health. To make effective judgements of water availability managers of water resources need to know the significance of measured natural resource condition in the regional context. Stream turbidity can be considered by the agricultural community as a sign of soil erosion and a loss of agricultural potential, while from the ecological perspective it can be considered a sign of deteriorating river health. Fundamentally, levels of turbidity are closely bound with land use practice and, in the Australian context, turbidity can be considered a measure of the consequences of land management practices on soil erosion and run-off. Measured levels of turbidity in Victoria should be interpreted within the context of a unique history and geography. The spread of European colonisation and the introduction of massive land use change to the Victorian landscape have meant that over most of Victoria current levels of turbidity reflect the effects of over a hundred and fifty years of large scale intervention with its controlling factors. In Victoria current levels of turbidity are interpreted in a cultural context far different from that of early colonists or even of a few decades ago. The concept of Ecologically Sustainable Development which has dominated natural resource management in recent times brings new responsibilities to resource managers. Ecologically sustainable management means that resources must be considered in a more inclusive spatial and temporal context. In the early stage of Victoria's history sustainable management of water meant having enough water left from winter rains to supplement summer supply. However, in recent years, it has begun to have more complex associations; sustainable water use is now, almost universally considered to include maintenance of the environmental health of waterways, and by implication, the environmental health of the whole catchment. In this context, stream turbidity can be considered a useful indicator of catchment health, in particular, because levels of turbidity bear a direct physical relationship to catchment processes. New tools are needed to explore the relationship between land use and water quality at the regional scale. The results of this current research include a regional statistical model of stream turbidity, which is conceptually designed to offer useful predictions of stream turbidity and underpin sustainable resource management. The statistical model was used as input to the development of a unique map display using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The GIS is used to display the distribution of model predictions over a large region of south-eastern Australia. The practical advantage of this modelling approach is that it provides managers with the ability to identify locations in Victoria where measured water quality differs significantly from modelled water quality and flag them for further investigation. The major project outputs are a map of Victorian Water Quality Monitoring Network (VWQMN) catchments showing catchments in Victoria where measured turbidity differs from model predictions and a raster representation of the state of Victoria in which cell values indicate predicted stream turbidity. Important to this project was the novel use of GIS technology to process large national and regional scale digital data sets using tools developed for catchment scale hydrological models.

In intelligent document processing system and geographical information systems (GIS), the image processing and recognition play an important role. This thesis deals with various problems in processing images in documents and GIS: image smoothing, filling, linearization and extraction of contour features, extraction of structural points, separation and recognition of spurious segments in handwritten digits, reconstruction and recognition of broken digits, and separation and recognition of colour document and GIS images. These approaches are also called Optical Character Recognition (OCR). A new smoothing technique is developed to smooth follow contours of image. With the new smoothing algorithms, spurious pixels (points) of contours are removed based on smooth patterns, and smooth followed contours are found. Also, skeletons of image can be smoothed between neighboring �end� and �junction� points. Smooth following makes linearization of smoothed contours possible based on Freeman codes. A new filling algorithm of contours, project filling, is described based on two kinds of structural patterns. By this method, any complicated contours of images can be filled correctly. Different from other linearization methods, linearization and feature extraction of smoothed contours are based on difference chain codes. Curvature and bend angles of linearized are found. The convexity and concavity of linearized are described. In this way, a series of description features of contours is formed. Structural points are new and useful features to describe morphological structures between neighboring linearized lines. Extraction of structural points is based on structural patterns which are determined by element chain codes. Also, extension Freeman codes are used in this thesis. Structural points make description and recognition of contours possible. In order to recognize handwritten digits in document processing systems, separation of spurious segments, reconstruction of broken digits and recognition of handwritten digits are investigated. Experiments with large number of testing data set show satisfactory results for these algorithms. Separation and recognition of colour document and GIS images are discussed. Object images of document and GIS images are extracted based on the description of shape structures, prior knowledge and color information, which are associated with each other. Color images can be described by a limited number of colors in color document and GIS images. Therefore, separation of color image is done by color reduction method, and recognition of object images is based on structure patterns, prior knowledge and colour information. It can be seen that specific information should be considered in many practical problems to achieve better processing results.

The process dealing with the resolution of Treaty claims considers a lot of information pertaining to real-world resources - spatial information. This study seeks to identify and suggest solutions for spatial information problems within the present claims process. This leads to a formal systems model of the present claims process emphasising the use of spatial information. An informal understanding of the claims process is then formed by analysing perceptions of actors within the claims process, thus allowing spatial information problems to be identified. Further analysis of the spatial information problems identifies causes, enabling possible solutions to be developed. Lastly, a solution is proposed and discussed as a means of highlighting other possible solutions to the spatial information problems identified by the study.