Satellite data and citizens science for sustainable cities

Abstract

The vast amount of satellite data empowers scientists to monitor, analyze, and design the urban environment considering comprehensive criteria. There are still some challenges in data analysis of urban areas due to low resolution of open satellite data, high cost of commercial satellite data, and noise (impulse, speckles, clouds, etc.). Citizen data collection could complement satellite data to get more precise information that can help decision makers to gain a better liveable urban environment. This study examines the potential for widespread use of citizen and satellite data to monitor urban environments, with a particular emphasis on air quality and vegetation monitoring. Due to short revisit time and higher spatial resolution satellite data provided by the European Space Agency have been used to monitor vegetation through vegetation multispectral indices (NDVI, NDRE, RVI, etc.) and air quality (SO₂, HCHO, NOₓ, etc.). While satellite data can lead to general conclusions of vegetation condition or air quality in a city, citizen data can identify specific problems that are beyond the `satellite's eyes`. Some initiatives engage citizens to collect data of urban biodiversity or monitor air quality. Voigt-Heucke et al. (2023) recognized 35 citizen science projects involved in monitoring and conserving urban biodiversity only in Germany. The European Environment Agency (2019) published the Report Assessing Air Quality through Citizen Science and emphasized the possibility of using simple, standardized measurement devices in air monitoring. The aim of this research is to identify the potential for integrating citizen and satellite data in urban planning, especially to monitor vegetation and air quality. Relevant published articles are analyzed and summarized to review previous experience in combining satellite and citizen data. Also, Sentinel 2 and Sentinel 5 Precursor data and Qgis open software are used to express the green area and air quality in Belgrade in 2016 and 2023.Editors: Aleksandra Đukić, Milena Vukmirović, Eva Vaništa Lazarević, Aleksandra Krstić-Furundžić, Nikola Mitrovi