THE POTENTIAL USE OF NEW HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA FOR URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
Gotthard Meinel, Regin Lippold, Maik Netzband
Institute of Ecological Spatial Development, Dresden, Germany
WG V11/3 - Thematic applications of High Spatial Resolution Satellite Imagery
KEY WORDS: Human Settlement, High Resolution Satellite Imagery, IRS-1C, Urban Information System, Urban Develop-
ment Monitoring, Composite Image, Planning Requirements, Data Merging
ABSTRACT:
The remits of regional planning and environmental monitoring are growing steadily. Planning data and status information
need to made available in ever more up-to-date form and with high spatial resolution. Given the constraints on public
funding, this demand for data can only be met in future using new forms of satellite sensor in outer space. The Indian IRS-
1C is currently delivering data with a 5-metre ground resolution, and it is expected that the American satellite image sensors
IKONOS 1 and QuickBird will shortly be producing data in the 1-metre resolution range. On the basis of new colour
composites, this paper assesses IRS-1C data in terms of pronouncement value, operationalisable processing strategies,
and suitability for diverse planning requirements. The conclusion arrived at is that these data are ideal vehicles with which
to up-date land-use plans, municipal survey maps, cartographic material covering urban structure types and biotopes,
surface-sealing surveys, working maps for landscape planning as well as providing the basis for general data up-dating at
a scale of 1:25,000. Further areas of application such as 3-D representations on the basis of digital relief models for the
purposes of assessing land formations for large building ventures (wind-power installations, bridges, etc.) or else the
identification of biodiversity using IRS colour composites are currently being scrutinised. The research project is funded by
the German Research Community (DFG).
1. NEW CHALLENGES FOR REGIONAL PLANNING
Globalisation is posing new challenges for regional plan-
ning. There is pressure to capture increasingly complex
processes virtually as they happen. International competi-
tion is intensifying, leading to a situation where municipali-
ties and regions are having to vie with one another for in-
vestment funds. The upshot is that, even in the case of
projects with a significant spatial-planning dimension, the
planning process is subject to tight deadlines. An example
of this is the location of companies from the microelectro-
nics sector, who are compelled to plan and commission
their extremely expensive, surface-intensive »fablines« on
very short time-scales. Planning is also being confronted
with new tasks as a result of the demand for sustainable
spatial development. This necessitates an exact analysis of
the spatial impact of measures planned as well as the plan-
ning and weighting of compensatory measures.
If the causes of environmental protection and nature con-
servation are to be successfully pursued and the effects of
spatial measures evaluated, it is essential that natural spa-
ces be inventorised beforehand. Pronouncements on, in
particular, larger spaces are only feasible if up-to-the-minu-
te data on current spatial utilisation and its structures are
available that facilitate comparison over large areas.
Satellite-based remote sensing is ideally placed to remedy
this shortage of topical data, especially acute in the case of
environmental lead planning. Monitoring the success of
measures initiated, to limit surface use for example, is
made significantly easier.
The increasingly detailed nature of planning issues and the
demands of information processing - comprehensive stocks
of digital base data at planning and environmental agencies
can now be taken as given - are causing expectations as
regards data performance (e.g. locational accuracy and
data attribution) to be raised. Compelling visualisation of
planning schemes has also come to be expected. This
dimension is set to become more and more crucial both to
political implementation and to public participation.
Whilst data processing tools have been constantly refined
in the form of geoinformation systems over recent years,
there are still large shortcomings as regards methods of
cost-effective, up-to-the-minute surveying of the inventorial
situation. Regional planners, for instance, do not have ac-
cess to wholly up-to-date cartographic material on built-up
areas (planning scale 1:100,000), municipal environmental
departments are short of information on biotope evolution,
land surveyors departments are short of current topographi-
cal base information for the up-dating of 1:25,000-scale
topographical maps and urban planners do not have up-to-
the-minute actual-utilisation data. Developing the satellite
image market will help overcome such deficits.
2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SATELLITE
IMAGE MARKET
A satellite image has many advantages over an aerial shot
of similar resolution. Foremost amongst these are its supe-
rior surface coverage and lower image distortion. The for-
mer obviates the need for arduous processing of individual
aerial images and subsequent patching together of same.
Lower image distortions are a result of the smaller angular
field produced when the viewing device is at a height of
several hundred kilometres. This leads to a reduction in
rectification work and to less serious image errors due to
occlusions etc.
250 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998
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