In this talk we will examine a class of a posterioris error estimators
which are formulated in terms of hierarchical basis functions.
The analysis of such estimators is greatly simplified using using some
analytical tools developed for the analysis of hierarchical basis iterative
methods. In this lecture we will examine the self-adjoint positive
definite case and the general linear indefinite case, using both
conforming and nonconforming a posteriori error estimators.
We we also present some examples of estimators for scalar elliptic
equations and the Stokes system of equations.