ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, urban remote sensing has emerged as a new frontier in the EO technology by focusing primarily on (1) understanding the biophysical properties, patterns, and processes of urban landscapes and (2) mapping and monitoring of urban land cover and spatial extent. Driven by the societal needs and improvement in sensor technology and image processing techniques, we have recently witnessed a substantial increase in research and development, technology transfer,
1.1 Urbanization, Global Changes, and Urban Remote Sensing ............................1 1.2 What Is Special about Global Urban Remote Sensing? ...................................4 1.3 Synopsis of the Book ........................................................................................6 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................9 References ................................................................................................................ 10
and engineering activities worldwide. As shown in Figure 1.1, the number of journal articles (including review articles) on urban remote sensing has been increasing rapidly since 2000. This period coincides with the advent of high spatial resolution satellite images (especially those with higher than 5 m resolution), spaceborne hyperspectral images and Lidar data, and enhanced image processing techniques such as object-based image analysis (OBIA), data mining, and data and image fusion of different sensors, wavelength regions, and spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions (Weng, 2009). Remote sensing methods and techniques have been applied to urban areas by using all ranges of electromagnetic wavelength and close-range sensors (Weng, 2012). Table 1.1 lists most relevant peer-reviewed journals for urban remote sensing along with the most prolific authors and major research groups. It is apparent from the table that all major remote sensing journals have published articles on this subject and that researchers worldwide are interested in using remote sensing technology to study urban areas, urbanization, and associated environmental issues.
