Urban Applications in Remote Sensing

The use of remotely sensed imagery is becoming common place for all levels of government for city, county, and state planning; change detection and monitoring; and construction planning and zoning. Examples of urban applications include road and rail transportation, telecommunications, and utility networks. These can be monitored, updated, and planned as required. Changes and updates can be made to population, tax assessment, commercial, and residential zoning data and basemaps.

Resolution Considerations

1) Discuss the three types of temporal resolutions that are considered when monitoring urban environments.

2) What is the minimum resolution required for extracting most urban information and what is the general rule in terms of spatial resolution to identify urban objects?

3) Define the difference between land cover and land use and discuss spatial resolution requirements and appropriate sensors for use in determining the four levels of the USGS land use/land cover classification system.

4) Residential development often progresses through identifiable stages. The table below contains six images showing the developmental stages of single-family residential housing. For each stage, describe the criteria using identifiable features within the image that set it apart from the other developmental stages.

A	B	C
D	E	F

Urban Classification Criteria

5) The following images depict various urban features (click to enlarge). Identify the features and develop a simple criteria for their identification.

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y	Z

6) The following images are taken 21 months apart and represent an excellent example of how remote sensing can be used to detect urban change. Analyze each of the images and discuss how planners and environmentalists can benefit from the detection of urban growth in environmental sensitive areas.

Sun City Hilton Head near Beaufort, SC

NAPP data acquired January 22, 1994 RGB = 3,2,1

CAMS data acquired September 21, 1996 RGB = 6,4,2

7) The Census Bureau has hired you to conduct population estimations on a local and a regional scale using remote sensing techniques. What procedures would you use to estimate populations for the city of Irmo and the state of South Carolina?

8) Complete the following table.

Spatial Resolution	Temporal Resolution	Sensor	Attribute
0.05 x 0.05 meters			Parking Studies
	12 hours		Traffic Count
		IKONOS	Damage Transportation
			USGS Level IV
5 x 5 meters			Population Estimates
			Utility Line Routing
			DEM Creation

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