Context : In recent years multi-wavelength observations have shown the presence of substructures related to merging events in a high fraction of galaxy clusters .
Clusters can be roughly grouped into two categories – relaxed and non-relaxed – and a proper characterisation of the dynamical state of these systems is of crucial importance both for astrophysical and cosmological studies .

Aims : In this paper we investigate the use of a number of morphological parameters ( Gini , M _ { 20 } , Concentration , Asymmetry , Smoothness , Ellipticity and Gini of the second order moment , G _ { M } ) introduced to automatically classify clusters as relaxed or dynamically disturbed systems .

Methods : We apply our method to a sample of clusters at different redshifts extracted from the Chandra archive and we investigate possible correlations between morphological parameters and other X-ray gas properties .
We conclude that a combination of the adopted parameters is a very useful tool to properly characterise the X-ray cluster morphology .

Results : According to our results three parameters – Gini , M _ { 20 } and Concentration – are very promising for identifying cluster mergers .
The Gini coefficient is a particularly powerful tool , especially at high redshift , being independent from the choice of the position of the cluster centre .
We find that high Gini ( > 0.65 ) , high Concentration ( > 1.55 ) and low M _ { 20 } ( < -2.0 ) values are associated with relaxed clusters , while low Gini ( < 0.4 ) , low Concentration ( < 1.0 ) and high M _ { 20 } ( > -1.4 ) characterise dynamically perturbed systems .
We also estimate the X-ray cluster morphological parameters in the case of radio loud clusters .
In excellent agreement with previous analyses we confirm that diffuse intracluster radio sources are associated with major mergers .

Conclusions :