Add to ORKGInternational audienceThis paper introduces orthogonal bandelet bases to approximate images having some geometrical regularity. These bandelet bases are computed by applying parametrized Alpert transform operators over an orthogonal wavelet basis. These bandeletization operators depend upon a multiscale geometric flow that is adapted to the image at each wavelet scale. This bandelet construction has a hierarchical structure over wavelet coefficients taking advantage of existing regularity among these coefficients. It is proved that C˛ -images having singularities along Calpha-curves are approximated in a best orthogonal bandelet basis with an optimal asymptotic error decay. Fast algorithms and compression applications are described