Such properties can be e.g. length, width, and the amount of 
area of the interesting objects. The geoscientist desires to 
measure such parameters from the image. That will be possible 
under certain conditions; 
It must be possible to isolate the interesting objects by a 
method of filtering, so that the images of the interesting : 
objects will be elements of a pattern in the image from: which 
the parameters as length, width etc. of the single elemnts can 
be measured. 
5. Object Hierarchies 
  
After having performed the filtering the question is important 
whether the elements: filtered out correlate with the. interesting 
objects on the earth surface. 
There have to be regarded two aspects: | 
1) It must be checked whether the elements filtered out are 
images of objects which are located on the same step of an 
object hierarchy. 
An object hierarchy e.g. is given by the following objects: 
leaf € twig € tree € wood. C landscape pattern 
0, € 0, c o € 0 € O5 earth surface 
Bac eee n c B Lé 5 image 
i 
| 
| | 
en d 
< ait vie CF k&€ i filtered 
image 
[| If k=1=5, then the necessary supposition is given that the 
| elements of the image structure can be located on the same 
| step of the object hierarchy. 
2) If scale decreases, objects which could be identified, when 
Scale was greater, can no longer be identified, The structure 
of the of the images of the objects will become smoother. 
With decreasing scale objects of a higher and higher step of 
the hierarchy will become. smooth. If the image of an object 
will become smooth, only the object on the next step of the 
hierarchy will not be smooth but will have a specific structure 
caused by the: shape of the smooth objects on the lower step 
of the hierarchy. By this structure the identification of some 
properties of the object on the higher step of the hierarchy 
can be possible so that the identification of the character 
of the smooth objects can be possible, 
The objects which have smooth images should be called smooth. The 
images of such smooth objects should be regarded as elements 
of the texture, Some parameters of such images of smooth objects 
can be measured after filtering the image. These parameters can