Remote Sensing – An Effective Data Source for Urban Monitoring

Kurzfassung

Urban monitoring implies multi-temporal observation and measurement of transformations or consistencies within cities. The urban context is highly complex, as cities consist of a large number of people living in close proximity and conditions of relative density and diversity in dynamically interrelated processes. Most of the conditions and processes are related to space. Thus, for measuring, analyzing and understanding the urban context, the dynamic interrelations and its permanent changes, spatial information are crucial. As one data source, remotely sensed data are inherently suited to provide information on urban land cover characteristics, and their changes over time, at various spatial and temporal scales. This paper gives an overview and examples on current applications at DLR to demonstrate capabilities and limitations for monitoring in cities based on remotely sensed data.