Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
temperature and public health issues. They explain techniques for urban vegetation
mapping, urban thermal mapping, and show the results of a comparison of urban
vegetation and surface temperature and their impact on environmental conditions in
New York City and Kuwait City. The authors advance the opinion that most suc-
cessful applications of remote sensing to the urban environment generally involve
measurement of physical quantities related to environmental conditions
such as
vegetation abundance and surface temperature.
In alignment with other
application oriented
chapters in the topic discussing the
context of developing countries
, Derya Maktav and Filiz Sunar Erbek discuss in
Chapter 15 the impact of rapid urban growth on land use changes, especially on the
agricultural land in Turkey. The way in which remote sensing is used to monitor
and assess these changes is pointed using a case study from a suburban area in the
greater Istanbul region. The results of the analysis show how it is possible to utilize
urban remote sensing in generating reliable measures and new layers of information
that are otherwise not readily available in developing countries with relatively
simple techniques such as image differencing and vegetation indices.
Demonstrating a case study of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Meshgan
Al-Awar and Farouk El-Baz discuss in Chapter 16 the role of remote sensing tech-
nology in the
monitoring and management of security in cities
and in assuring the
timely policing of urban environments. This chapter presents application examples
from the Dubai's Police to show how the utilization of geo-referenced satellite
images on top of GIS platforms can allow the immediate allocation of the needed
response. It is a good example on how these imagery and geospatial technologies
can be used for a better command level decision-making and, furthermore, how
they are most useful in the reconstruction and enhancement of crime scenes.
Nighttime Satellite imagery
examined by Paul C. Sutton, Matthew J. Taylor and
Christopher D. Elvidge in Chapter 17 shows great potential for mapping and monitor-
ing many human activities including: (1) population size, distribution, and growth,
(2) urban extent and rates of urbanization, (3) Impervious Surface, (4) Energy
Consumption, and (5) CO
2
emissions. They argue that the relatively coarse spectral,
spatial, and temporal resolution of the imagery proves to be an advantage rather than
a disadvantage for these applications.
Within two case studies (first of exurbia in the United States and second in
Guatemala) they explain that while nighttime satellite imagery is no substitute for
an 'on the ground census' of the population, it can be used in innovative and inter-
esting ways to supplement mapping human presence and activity on earth.
References
Anas A, Arnott R, Small KA (1998) Urban spatial structure. J Econ Lit 36:1426-1464
Banzhaf E, Höfer R (2008) Monitoring urban structure types as spatial indicators with CIR aerial
photographs for a more effective urban environmental management. In: Journal of Selected
Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS), IEEE. 1(2):129-138.
ISSN: 1939-1404. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JSTARS.2008.2003310
