Geological lineament mapping in arid area by semi-automatic extraction from satellite images: example at the El Kseïbat region (Algerian Sahara)

Geologists in charge of a detailed lineament mapping in arid and desert area, face the extent of the land and the abundance of eolian deposits. This study presents a semi-automatic approach of extraction of lineament, different from other methods, such as the automatic extraction and manual extraction, by being both fast and objective. It consists of a series of digital processing (textural and spatial filtering, binarization by thresholding and mathematic morphology ... etc.) applied to a Landsat 7 ETM+scene. This semi-automatic approach has produced a detailed map of lineaments, while taking account of tectonic directions recognized in the region. It helps mitigate the effect of dune deposits meet the specifications of arid environment. The visual validation of these linear structures, by geoscientists and field data, allowed the identification of the majority of structural lineaments or at least those tried geological. (Author)