XV Congress of the International Society for 
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 
Rio de Janeiro 1984 
  
     
  
    
   
   
   
    
    
   
    
   
Commission III 
INVITED PAPER 
    
Abstract 
Different methods for terrain description and classification are presented. 
Descriptive classifications are known from geology. These descriptions have 
also been formalized using the concept of stochastic processes. Other clas- 
sification methods are based on Fourier-transformation, classifying the 
terrain types according to their frequencies of undulations. Recent approaches 
are based on the concept of selfsimilarity, observing the presence or lack 
of similarity of micro- and macro structures in the terrain. A comparison 
of these classification models is given and the applicability of these mo- 
dels for interpolation and other deductions is discussed. 
Poul Frederiksen and Ole Jacobi 
Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark 
Kurt Kubik 
Aalborg, Denmark and ITC, Delft, Holland