Urban remote sensing is a powerful tool to assess and compare both how urban forms evolve and how applied solutions to urban problems are developed. Analyses can involve in-depth cross-comparisons of cities across geographic areas, nation-wide or globally. Each remote sensing "measurement" is a synoptic point in time and space that can have high temporal resolution, and allows for the acquisition of data that may be too costly to collect in-situ. The data is also not constrained by political boundaries or hindered by differing collection methods. Quantitative as well as qualitative comparisons can be made for past, present, or future temporal and spatial patterns of urban development trajectories. By incorporating social and economic data with remote sensing analysis—such as public health, population, industrial data, or patterns of vulnerability—issues of sustainability can be analyzed and studied.
Below is a comprehensive overview of the100 Cities Project:
100 Cities Project’s Guide to Urban Remote Sensing
Features of Urban Remote Sensing
Each measurement covers a complete spatial area at a point in time
Measurements at occur specific times and multiple scenes can allow for quantification of change over time
Capacity for description, classification, measurement of physical properties impossible to get in-situ
Capacity for routine periodic updating and comparison of measurements
Regional / Global Comparison of Measurements over time
Measurements are not bounded by political boundaries and are collected in the same manner globally
Examples of Applied Urban Remote Sensing
Mapping environmental parameters( such as micro-climate, heat island, access to open space, amount of impervious surface, amount of vegetation) and assessing the geographic differences within a region and connections to social, economic, or ethnic divisions
Tracking urban area growth and change: speed, density, direction, structures, impervious surfaces, land use consumed
Determining spatial arrangement of green/open space within cities and at periphery: amount distribution, linkages
Monitoring changes on the urban fringe: farmland conversions, wetland infringement, biodiversity threats
Analyzing land cover/land use changes that influence urban climatology and atmospheric deposition
Studying urban growth as it intersects areas of potential environmental hazards: earthquakes, subsidence, mudslides, floods, etc.
