A method for cityscape analysis by determining the fractal dimension of its skyline

In this paper we describe an approach for semi-automated architectural analysis of a cityscape. The approach is based on the calculation of the fractal dimension of the cityscape’s skyline. The basic software system consists of an intensity based skyline extraction module combined with a box-counting approach to calculate the fractal dimension of the skyline. For images where obstacles such as power-lines, vertical poles or cranes interrupt the skyline a variation of this approach was developed. The paper describes the methods involved and presents three pilot experiments which indicate that: 1) If trees intersect the skyline they can change its fractal dimension; 2) The method has potential to distinguish characteristic skylines from different types of cities; 3) It can be a sensitive process to determine the best fit skyline in the image of a cityscape. The new method proposes to control this process by using the local minima of the skyline’s fractal dimension which is interpreted as a function of the image’s intensity cut-off values.