According to the first geographic law of Tobler and the Marr’s machine vision theory

an algorithm to segmenting multi-spectral remote sensing imageries has been put forward based on the edge information extracted from them.This algorithm consists of four steps listed below:（1） Detecting edge information in each band of remote sensing imageries using a improved Canny method;（2） Integrating edge information in each band of remote sensing imageries into a binary image by methods such as overlay technique in GIS technology

and then thinning edges in the binary image by techniques of mathematical morphology using a rectangle probe;（3） conjoining disconnected edges according to the characteristics of processing edge such as length

direction and so on

to close each region;（4） at last

labeling region and remove abundant edges that do not compose region.Then

the multi-spectral remote sensing imageries of Quickbird covering the Kumamoto city

Japan

have been taken as a case study for this algorithm

and the result has been compared with other segmentation algorithms such as Multi-Threshold Gray Slice Approach（MTGSA）

Iterative Self-Organized Data Analysis Technology Algorithm（ISODATA） image segmentation algorithm

Watershed Segmentation Algorithm（WSA）

Fractal Net Evolution Approach（FNEA） and so on.Based on the comparative analysis

conclusions could be drawn out that（1） In term of utilizing brightness information of each band

the scope that the algorithm proposed in the paper is the most comprehensive one

and MTGSA and WSA can only use single band of multi-spectral remote sensing image;（2） The result of this algorithm could be the most satisfied

as it detects edge information of each spectral band respectively

and then integrates as well as connects them together

maximally digging out the detailed features in remote sensing imageries;（3） In the aspect of computational duration

this algorithm is relatively a bit faster than others under the same environment.As the same as the other three approaches

the algorithm proposed in the paper has also confronted the common difficulty of how to confirm the coefficient in the image segmentation procedure.