Remote Sensing Applications for the Urban Environment

Land use and land cover changes associated with increased urbanization have led to landscape and environmental changes throughout the world. Remote Sensing Applications for the Urban Environment places emphasis on the rapid development of worldwide urbanization and its impact on the environment, and reviews the assessment of urban land cover conditions using remote sensing data. The book examines current satellite observation capacities, the use of remote sensing data to characterize urban extent and urban land cover, and the applications of satellite-derived data for urban environment assessments. It also introduces cutting-edge assessment methods and remote sensing techniques for characterizing high-resolution imagery of urban areas in different ecological environments.

• Focuses on the latest progress in urban remote sensing and technologies used to monitor urban land use and land cover conditions
• Introduces several methods used to extract urban landscape features using high-resolution imagery
• Details the methods currently used for assessing urban vegetation, impervious surface, and urban land use and land cover conditions
• Describes how to use multi-temple satellite images to monitor urban growth around the world

An up-to-date reference reflecting the state of the art in both remote sensing and the environmental assessment of urban areas, Remote Sensing Applications for the Urban Environment summarizes current satellite observing capacities and the growing demand for consistent and continuous local, regional, and global observation data by different government agencies throughout the world. This book serves academic faculties, students, researchers, and government decision makers.

George Xian has extensive experience in remote sensing data applications for the assessment of land cover change and climate variations. He has focused on using remote sensing information to investigate urban land use and land cover changes on both regional and national scales. He has also incorporated remote sensing derived urban land cover and land use information with other environmental information to investigate local and regional climate change, and air and water quality. In addition, Dr. Xian has published numerous journal papers and book chapters.