The effect of morphological smoothening by reconstruction on the extraction of peaks and pits from digital elevation models

In this paper, the effect of morphological smoothening by reconstruction on the extraction of peaks and pits from digital elevation models (DEMs) is studied. First, a mathematical morphological based algorithm to extract peaks and pits from DEMs is developed. Morphological smoothening by reconstruction is then implemented on the DEM of Great Basin using kernels of different sizes. The number of peaks and pits extracted from the resultant DEMs is computed using connected component labeling and the results are compared. This work is aimed at studying the capabilities of morphological smoothening by reconstruction in the modeling of objects and processes operating within an environment.