Global Mapping of Human Settlement: Experiences, Datasets, and Prospects
Features
- Discusses global mapping products that describe human settlements with sufficient spectral and spatial resolution
- Demonstrates how remote sensing can be used to assist urban planners beyond the local scale
- Includes a DVD with samples of the latest products
- Presents the methodologies behind datasets and analyzes potential applications
- Highlights directions for further research
Summary
The use of remote sensors for human settlement mapping and monitoring holds great promise for numerous fields of study, including urban planning and global environmental change and sustainability. While the potential for this technology is difficult to measure, achieving useful results at a regional or global level is but a recent accomplishment. Global Mapping of Human Settlement is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the methodologies, datasets, and approaches related to the use of remotely sensed data to map human settlements at the global scale, as well as the experiences encountered with their application.
Valuable to a broad range of researchers, the book begins by analyzing the requirements for global and regional urban remote sensing. It provides a general background of global urban issues, outlines observation and assessment requirements, and looks at how these relate to current initiatives on international policy and strategic levels. The contributors, an international group of pioneering experts, describe the characteristics of human settlements as seen and mapped from remote sensors, either at the regional or global scale. They also discuss the spectral variety, special scales, and nighttime appearance as key remote sensing indicators of these environments.
The text explores some of the most acclaimed and important projects and programs previously carried out or in current use for urban mapping and monitoring. These chapters highlight the impressive amount of information available and the processing and analysis techniques used to extract such data from several data sources, including satellite imagery. The book also explores some of the future challenges and makes recommendations regarding areas of research that should be actively pursued.
DVD Included to Complement the Text
To provide readers with the opportunity to experience the latest tools, the editors supplement the text with a DVD that provides samples of the latest products. These will assist readers in testing approaches proposed in the book.
Table of Contents
Global Urban Issues: A Primer, K. C. Seto
Some Recommendations for Global Efforts in Urban
Monitoring and Assessments from Remote Sensing, M. Herold
A Methodology to Quantify Built-Up Structures from Optical VHR Imagery, M. Pesaresi and D. Ehrlich
The Color of Cities: An Overview of Urban Spectral Diversity, C. Small
A New Map of Global Urban Extent from MODIS Remote
Sensing Data Based on an Urban Ecoregion Approach, A. Schneider, M. A. Friedl, and D. Potere
Global Urban Mapping Based on Nighttime Lights, C. D. Elvidge, P. C. Sutton, B. T. Tuttle, T. Ghosh, and K. E. Baugh
More Than a Name: Why Is Global Urban Population Mapping a GRUMPy Proposition?, D. Balk
Global Mapping of Human Settlement: Experiences, Datasets, and Prospects, J. Latham, B. Huddleston, R. Cumani, A. Martucci, I. Rosati, and M. Salvatore
The Urban Environmental Monitoring/100 Cities Project: Legacy of the First Phase and Next Steps, E. A. Wentz, W. L. Stefanov, M. Netzband,M. Möller, and A. Brazel
Megacities: Hints for Risk Management Using EO Data, H. Taubenböck, A. Roth, and S. Dech
Improving Urban Monitoring Toward a European Urban Atlas, F. M. Seifert
Semantic Characterization of Human Settlement Areas: Critical Issues to be Considered, L. J. M. Jansen
Comparison of Global Urban Maps, D. Potere and A. Schneider
The Role of SAR Sensors, F. Dell’Acqua
Future EO Sensors of Relevance — Integrated Perspective for Global Urban Monitoring, M. Ehlers
Methods and Challenges for Using High-Temporal Resolution Data for Monitoring Urban Growth, A. Boucher and K. C. Seto
Author Bio(s)
Paolo Gamba is an associate professor of Telecommunications at the University of Pavia in Italy. Martin Herold coordinates the European Space Agency Global Observation for Forest and Land Cover Dynamics Project Office at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.
