Including Spatial Information in Image Segmentation

There are many recent efforts oriented to incorporate the spatial information linked to pixel neighborhood in image segmentation approaches, and this can be done as a pre-, in-, or postprocessing step in the used algorithm [34,64,96]. 

The incorporation of information also has specificities according to the application areas. In remote sensing analysis, watershed algorithms [86], methods including topological information [98], and GIS-related functions [99] are options to enclose the spatial information, whereas other approaches based on preserving the edge of clusters are used in biomedical areas [100]. 

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