Using SPOT 5 high spatial resolution image to detect vegetation patches at Gudong oil field

Numbers and areas and locations of vegetation community patch are the important parameters for vegetation function and structure researches. In this paper, vegetation community patches are extracted using SPOT 5 high spatial resolution fusion image based on mathematical morphology. Firstly, vegetation is extracted according to the scatter plot between B3 and B2. Then vegetation community patches are detected based on the criterion of circle and ellipse object. And the centers of the patches are located. Finally, two types of the spatial structure models of vegetation communities are outlined. The experiments at Gudong oil field show that the algorithms for extracting circle and ellipse object based on mathematical morphology are simple and effective for detecting vegetation community patch.