Directional morphological image transforms for lineament extraction from remotely sensed images

Morphological image transforms find their basis in the notions of mathematical morphology. An attempt is made to develop morphological transforms for enhancement of directional edges and lineaments from satellite imagery. Geostructural features are generally oriented in preferred directions. This information has been utilized in designing structuring elements for morphological transforms. Several shapes and sizes of structuring elements have been designed and applied to delineate lineaments in different litho-environments of the same study area. Top hat transform has been applied using the directional structuring elements for edge image at 0 degrees, 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees, 120 degrees and 150 degrees. Geological lineaments such as faults could be easily identified on an edge image obtained using top hat transformation followed by an image superimposition technique. The lineament map was developed using directionally enhanced edge images and the results have been verified.