Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) is a customized sequence of mathematical morphological operators targeted at the description of the geometry and connectivity of the image components. Since it is based only on geometric concepts, this methodology can be applied at any scale and to any type of digital images in any application field, including urban planning. The foreground area of a binary image is divided into seven visually distinguished MSPA classes: Core, Islet, Perforation, Edge, Loop, Bridge and Branch. Twenty-five mutually exclusive feature classes are obtained by MSPA division, which correspond to the original foreground area exactly after merger. This kind of analysis method which is easy to be interpreted by computer is gradually applied to the theoretical research field of urban planning.
Edited and translated by Zhang Yifei