We introduce the knowledge-based image interpretation system GeoAIDA and give examples for an image operator, extracting trees from aerial imagery. Moreover we present a generic grouping approach, based on the Relative Neighborhood Graph. The application of the tree operator to a test site shows that the introduced approach for the delineation of trees using Active Contour Models leads to good ...

Despite the population stagnation in many industrialized countries, we experience a steady sprawl of urban/suburban space. This fact is based on the migration out of the inner cities, increasing demands on living space, and set-aside of land for commercial developments. In developing countries, this urban growth occurs at dramatic speeds and costs to the environment. Often, planning offices hav...

The problem of estimating the settlement of shallow foundations on granular soils is very complex and not yet entirely understood. The geotechnical literature has included many formulae that are based on several theoretical or experimental methods to obtain an accurate, or near-accurate, prediction of such settlement. However, these methods fail to achieve consistent success in relation to accu...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of collector materials and position on Pinctada margaritifera spat attachment. Settlement on polyethylene pipes (54.6%) was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than on plastic baskets (25%). Significantly higher (P < 0.05) spat catch was recorded from the collectors which were installed on lower height of settlement tank than upper. The number o...

The increasing needs for environmental friendly antifouling coatings have led to investigation of new alternatives for replacing copper and TBT-based paints. In this study, results are presented from larval settlement assays of the barnacle Amphibalanus (= Balanus) amphitrite on planar, interdigitated electrodes (IDE), having 8 or 25 mum of inter-electrode spacing, upon the application of pulse...

In this study, a settlement measurement device was used to track the settlement of different layers in composting piles, and time courses of settlement velocity, bulk density distribution, and effective bulk density were investigated. Settlement is divided into two stages: the physical compressive settlement and the mass loss settlement. At the end of the former stage, bulk density (rho') and p...

Distinguishing the relative contributions of various processes to variation in recruitment success is central to our understanding of patterns and rates of population replenishment in marine organisms. We monitored settlement and recruitment of a common Caribbean damselfish, the blue chromis Chromis cyanea, to ascertain the extent to which variation in recruitment reflected settlement dynamics....

OBJECTIVE To determine the nutritional status and household resources of preschool children. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey. SETTING : Two informal settlement areas, Joe Slovo (JS) and JB Mafora (JBM) in Mangaung, near Bloemfontein, South Africa. SUBJECTS Preschool children (<72 months) of a randomly selected sample of households in JS (experimental) (n = 162) and JBM (control) (n = 186)...

Land cover classification plays a key role for various geo-based applications. Numerous approaches for the classification of settlements in remote sensing imagery have been developed. Most of them assume the features of neighbouring image sites to be conditionally independent. Using spatial context information may enhance classification accuracy, because dependencies of neighbouring areas are t...