The full range of EO satellite sensors are capable of monitoring particular aspects of urban areas. The most relevant include SAR satellites such as TerraSAR-X that distinguish between urban fabric and other land cover. Further, optical satellites in the resolution range HR and VHR are used to map imperviousness and soil sealing. Beyond such land cover classifications with low granularity, HR and VHR data are used for producing detailed land use and land cover classifications that distinguish different settlement densities or, in combination with additional data, different land use such as transport, residential etc. as defined in Classification schemes specialized on urban areas. Airborne laser scanning (and stereographic analysis) maps building and vegetation heights. InSAR methods allow to measure land subsidence that is highly relevant e.g. in coastal cities close to or below the sea surface elevation. Night-time optical data maps lights. Thermal sensors allow mapping the heat that is radiated from cities. Typical applications include monitoring urban growth/sprawl, transport networks, urban heat islands, and generating city maps and 3D city models for urban planning that are relevant to users in smart cities and in local/regional planning.
Potential new skills for this concept:
1. Understand the importance of identifying UHIs in a spatial planning context (what are the consequences if, in a spatial planning context, the UHIs are not identified?)
2. Understand how EO surface temperature time series can support identification of UHIs
3. Understand how to interpret EO surface temperature time series to identify UHIs
4. Understand how to derive maps from EO surface temperature data, to be integrated with other relevant information related to UHI identification in a spatial planning context
5. Understand how to analyse information derived from EO surface temperature data integrated with other relevant information related to UHI identification in a spatial planning context
6. Understand the limitations of the EO surface temperature data due to the spatial resolution
Produce an EO-based map of the urban heat island of a city
Compare city districts using an EO-based map of the urban heat island
Commment from Martyna: Expert Pavlos Krassakis provided the following description: (How we can use it?)
Applications of Differential SAR interferometry in urban areas
Many such measurements are combined using PSI to produce highly accurate terrain motion maps. In urban or sub-urban areas where there is a prevalence of PSs, PSI allows analysis of even individual structures on the ground. The DS methods include algorithms such as SBAS. A DS object reflects lower radar energy compared to PSs and it usually covers several pixels in high resolution SAR images. These pixels exhibit similar scattering properties and can be used together for deformation estimation. SBAS estimates the deformation time series even in rural areas where the density of PSs is low (Berardino et al. 2002). Subsidence regardless of the causes in urban areas have already been detected and measured using SAR interferometric techniques (Amelung et al. 1999; Arangio et al. 2013; Krassakis et al. 2019)
References (APA style):
Amelung, F., Galloway, D.L., Bell, J.W., Zebker, H.A., Laczniak, R.J. (1999). Sensing the ups and downs of Las Vegas: InSAR reveals structural control of land subsidence and aquifer-system deformation. Geology. 27(6):483-486.
Arangio, S., Calò, F., Di Mauro, M., Bonanom M., Marsella, M., Manunta, M. (2013). An application of the SBAS-DInSAR technique for the assessment of structural damage in the city of Rome. Struct Infrastruct Eng. 10:1469–1483.
Krassakis, P., Kazana, S., Chen, F., Koukouzas, N., Parcharidis, L., Lekkas, E. (2019). Detecting subsidence spatial risk distribution of ground deformation induced by urban hidden streams. Geocarto International, DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2019.1622601.
Explain the application of EO information for monitoring urban sprawl
Completed