364 
  
  
of additional information, nor how they 
should be processed. 
e Testing should be made to determine 
whether Olicount is insensitive to lossy 
compression algorithms, (e.g., JPEG). The 
ability to use imagery compressed in this 
manner would help solve - from a project 
management perspective - the problem 
presented by increased data volumes of 
multi-spectral imagery. 
5. Conclusions 
The Olicount research project has created a 
simple, effective tool for the semi-automatic 
counting of olive trees on panchromatic digital 
imagery of suitable spatial resolution. The 
algorithm's performance - coded in C++ and 
integrated into a standard GIS application 
environment - is efficient, and allows for the 
modification of the core program to a variety of 
different project situations. Early results show 
that its application in a variety of situations is 
successful. More detailed conclusions 
concerning tests conducted with the Olistat 
project data set will be part of the oral 
presentation of this paper. 
6. Further information 
Further information on the Olicount and Olistat 
projects can be obtained from: 
e http://www.ais.sai.jrc.it/marspac/index.html 
7. Acknowledgements 
The authors would like to recognise the efforts 
made by: 
— Dr. Enrico Zini of RSDE, for his valuable 
contribution during the Olicount project, in 
particular algorithm development. 
— The firms TRAGSATEC (Spain) and 
FINSIEL (Italy) for sharing their experience 
of semi-automatic olive tree identification on 
digitised aerial photography, as well as their 
pioneering work in this area. 
Windows 95™ is a Trademark (™) of Microsoft 
Corporation. 
ArcView™ is a Trademark (™) of ESRI, Inc. 
Any mention of trademarks (TM) does NOT imply an 
endorsement of the product by the JRC or the 
European Commission. 
8. References 
EEC, (1975), “Portant établissement d’un casier 
oléicole” Regulation 154/75, Official Journal of the 
European Commission, no. L19, p1, 21.1.1975. 
EEC, (1979), 2276/79 “Portant modalités 
d'application pour l'établissement d'un casier 
oléicole dans les Etats membres producteurs” 
Regulation 2276/79. 
EEC, (1997), Decision NO. C(97)2690 Decision of 
the Commission of the financing of an action 
concerning counting of the number of olive trees 
in Member States. 
Howard, J.A. (1991) Remote sensing of forest 
resources, Chapman and Hall, London. 
Kay, S., Léo, O., Meyer-Roux, J., Delincé, J., Van 
de Steene, M. (1997) Operational activities 
involving airborne remote sensing related to the 
Common Agricultural Policy, 3" International 
Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and 
Exhibition, 7-10 July 1997, Copenhagen, 
Denmark, Vol. |, pp79-86. (ERIM International, 
Inc.) 
Larsen, M. (1997) Crown modelling to find tree top 
positions in aerial photographs, 3" International 
Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and 
Exhibition, 7-10 July 1997, Copenhagen, 
Denmark, Vol. Il, pp428-435. (ERIM International, 
Inc.) 
Peedell, S., Kay S. and Giardino G. (1998) Seeing 
the (olive) trees from the wood - using GIS in 
Europe for olive tree identification, 1998 ESRI 
User Conference, San Diego, 27th-31st July. 
Schowengerdt, R.A. (1983) Techniques for image 
processing and classification in remote sensing. 
Academic Press Inc., Orlando. 
SIDO (1998), Rapport d'expérimentation - 
Olicount/ArcView d'apres IGN N&B 1/40.000 
(pers. comm.). 
  
Footnotes 
! Consultant with TERMA Elektronik Italia 
? Now with Harlequin Group, Manchester, United 
Kingdom 
3 Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France (in order of 
decreasing importance). 
Intemational Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998 
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