The Operational Use of Remote Sensing in Municipalities: A Global Expert-based Study

This book presents the operational use of remote sensing in municipalities for urban planning purposes. Through a unique study among more than 70 cities and institutions in 41 countries, it reveals the remaining gap of knowledge and awareness for remote sensing data, methods, and instruments. It sheds light on the uncertainties and shows what remote sensing data are acquired and by which departments they are used. The tasks and activities remote sensing data are used for, are extensively presented. In the times of open government data, digital citizenship and participation movements, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the topic and intends to raise the awareness for the importance of remote sensing to the society.

Arthur Lehner studied Landscape Planning & Landscape Architecture at the University of Natural Resource and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and received his master’s degree in July 2015. Thesis topic: Urban development of the city of Lima, Peru.

While studying he worked as a freelancer for the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (ÖWAV). He also did an internship in a Peruvian NGO (AIDER), position: GIS intern, during a stay of 3 months in Peru.

He started his PhD “Applied Geoinformatics” in fall 2015 at the University of Salzburg with the topic “Remote Sensing Derived Building Structure and Parameters for Urban Planning Applications”. His supervisor in Salzburg is Prof. Dr. Thomas Blaschke. Accompanying the studies at the University of Salzburg he received a funding for three years from the AIT-Austrian Institute of Technology for the position of a PhD researcher. His research interests encompass urban remote sensing, Copernicus satellite data, urban planning, open space analysis, urban agriculture, urban morphology studies, and object-based image analysis related analysis of the urban structure.