Urban Atlas, land use modelling and spatial metric techniques

Recently, through the GMES program of ESA the Urban Atlas dataset was released. The Urban Atlas is providing pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Large Urban Zones with more than 100.000 inhabitants as defined by the Urban Audit. The production of the various datasets started in 2009 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. At presently datasets for more than 150 urban areas have been released. Most importantly the datasets can be freely downloaded and distributed. The availability of such a huge dataset produced with the same standards will have a major impact on the development of urban transportation models and the comparative analysis of the urban areas across Europe. Combined with the data sets that will be developed from the various Census of population it could become the basis for the application of various models in the next ten years. In this paper two major themes are discussed. First, how the current state of art in urban modeling (behavioral, cellular automata and statistical) can use these models, what type of additional data might be needed and how these datasets can be combined with other data for developing land use transportation models. Second, spatial metric techniques are used to define indicators for the landscape that could be used for comparing the structure and the form of the various cities. In the last ten years there has been an increasing interest in applying spatial metric techniques analysis of urban environments, to examine unique spatial components of intra-and inter-city urban structure, as well as, the dynamics of change. The landscape perspective assumes abrupt transitions between individual patches that result in distinct edges. These measures provide a link between the detailed spatial structures that result from urban change processes. The spatial metric indicators were developed for several cities and are then used for a comparative study of city typologies and urban fabric characteristics.

Chapter Earth Observation for Urban Climate Monitoring: Surface Cover and Land Surface Temperature

The rate at which global climate change is happening is arguably the most pressing environmental challenge of the century, and it affects our cities. Climate change exerts added stress on urban areas through increased numbers of heat waves threatening people’s well-being and, in many cases, human lives. Earth observation (EO) systems and the advances in remote sensing technology increase the opportunities for monitoring the thermal behavior of cities. The Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites for Copernicus, a program launched to provide data, information, services, and knowledge in support of Europe’s goals regarding sustainable development and global governance of the environment. This chapter examines the exploitation of EO data for monitoring the urban climate, with particular focus on the urban surface cover and temperature. Two example applications are analyzed: the mapping of the urban surface and its characteristics, using EO data and the estimation of urban temperatures. Approaches, like the ones described in this chapter, can become operational once adapted to Sentinels, since their long-term operation plan guarantees the future supply of satellite observations. Thus, the described methods may support planning activities related to climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities, as well as routine urban planning activities

Cubesats Allow High Spatiotemporal Estimates of Satellite-Derived Bathymetry

High spatial and temporal resolution satellite remote sensing estimates are the silver bullet for monitoring of coastal marine areas globally. From 2000, when the first commercial satellite platforms appeared, offering high spatial resolution data, the mapping of coastal habitats and the extraction of bathymetric information have been possible at local scales. Since then, several platforms have offered such data, although not at high temporal resolution, making the selection of suitable images challenging, especially in areas with high cloud coverage. PlanetScope CubeSats appear to cover this gap by providing their relevant imagery. The current study is the first that examines the suitability of them for the calculation of the Satellite-derived Bathymetry. The availability of daily data allows the selection of the most qualitatively suitable images within the desired timeframe. The application of an empirical method of spaceborne bathymetry estimation provides promising results, with depth errors that fit to the requirements of the international Hydrographic Organization at the Category Zone of Confidence for the inclusion of these data in navigation maps. While this is a pilot study in a small area, more studies in areas with diverse water types are required for solid conclusions on the requirements and limitations of such approaches in coastal bathymetry estimations

Bayesian geostatistical modelling of PM; 10; and PM; 2.5; surface level concentrations in Europe using high-resolution satellite-derived products

Air quality monitoring across Europe is mainly based on in situ ground stations, which are too sparse to accurately assess the exposure effects of air pollution for the entire continent. The demand for precise predictive models that estimate gridded geophysical parameters of ambient air at high spatial resolution has rapidly grown. Here, we investigate the potential of satellite-derived products to improve particulate matter (PM) estimates. Bayesian geostatistical models addressing confounding between the spatial distribution of pollutants and remotely sensed predictors were developed to estimate yearly averages of both, fine (PM; 2.5; ) and coarse (PM; 10; ) surface PM concentrations, at 1 km; 2; spatial resolution over 46 European countries. Model outcomes were compared to geostatistical, geographically weighted and land-use regression formulations. Rigorous model selection identified the Earth observation data which contribute most to pollutants' estimation. Geostatistical models outperformed the predictive ability of the frequently employed land-use regression. The resulting estimates of PM; 10; and PM; 2.5; , which represent the main air quality indicators for the urban Sustainable Development Goal, indicate that in 2016, 66.2% of the European population was breathing air above the WHO air quality guidelines thresholds. Our estimates are readily available to policy makers and scientists assessing the effects of long-term exposure to pollution on human and ecosystem health

Initial development of the urbisphere urban hyperspectral library: Berlin, Germany

The future sustainability of cities is linked directly with their adaptive capacity in response to both ongoing urbanization, weather extremes and climate change. Many possible actions are related to urban materials and their thermal and radiative properties. To explore alternatives using modelling and to monitor applications the thermal and radiative properties of materials are critical. However, there is a lack of hyperspectral data for a wide range of common materials. A Spectral Evolution RS-3500 spectroradiometer is used to measure 2151 spectral (1 nm) bands between 350 to 2500 nm in four representative neighborhoods of Berlin (Charlottenburg, Neukolln, Lichtenberg and Mitte) during August 2022. The data are processed to contribute 284 hyperspectral measurements of surfaces into the urbisphere hyperspectral library

DEIMS-SDR – A web portal to document research sites and their associated data

Climate change and other drivers are affecting ecosystems around the globe. In order to enable a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies in response to environmental change, a broad range of information, including in-situ observations of both biotic and abiotic parameters, needs to be considered. Access to sufficient and well documented in-situ data from long term observations is therefore one of the key requirements for modelling and assessing the effects of global change on ecosystems. Usually, such data is generated by multiple providers; often not openly available and with improper documentation. In this regard, metadata plays an important role in aiding the findability, accessibility and reusability of data as well as enabling reproducibility of the results leading to management decisions. This metadata needs to include information on the observation location and the research context. For this purpose we developed the Dynamic Ecological Information Management System – Site and Dataset Registry (DEIMS-SDR), a research and monitoring site registry (https://www.deims.org/) that not only makes it possible to describe in-situ observation or experimentation sites, generating persistent, unique and resolvable identifiers for each site, but also to document associated data linked to each site. This article describes the system architecture and illustrates the linkage of contextual information to observational data. The aim of DEIMS-SDR is to be a globally comprehensive site catalogue describing a wide range of sites, providing a wealth of information, including each site's location, ecosystems, facilities, measured parameters and research themes and enabling that standardised information to be openly available

Characterizing physical and social composition of cities to inform climate adaptation: case studies in Germany

Cities are key to climate change mitigation and adaptation in an increasingly urbanized world. As climate, socio-economic and physical compositions of cities are constantly changing, these need to be considered in their urban climate adaptation. To identify these changes, urban systems can be characterized by physical, functional and social indicators. Multi-dimensional approaches are needed to capture changes of city form and function, including patterns of mobility, land use, land cover, economic activities, and human behaviour. In this paper we examine how urban structure types provide one way to differentiate cities in general and to what extent socio-economic criteria have been considered regarding the characterisation of urban typologies. In addition, we analyse how urban structure types are used in local adaptation strategies and plans to derive recommendations and concrete targets for climate adaptation. To do this, we examine indicators, background data used, and cartographic information developed for and within such urban adaptation plans, focusing in particular on the German cities of Karlsruhe and Berlin. The comparative analysis provides new insights into how present adaptation plans consider physical and social structures including issues of human vulnerability within cities. Based on the analysis we make recommendations on how to improve the consideration of both physical and socio-economic aspects of a city to support pathways for adaptatio

Copernicus for urban resilience in Europe

The urban community faces a significant obstacle in effectively utilising Earth Observation (EO) intelligence, particularly the Copernicus EO program of the European Union, to address the multifaceted aspects of urban sustainability and bolster urban resilience in the face of climate change challenges. In this context, here we present the efforts of the CURE project, which received funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme, to leverage the Copernicus Core Services (CCS) in supporting urban resilience. CURE provides spatially disaggregated environmental intelligence at a local scale, demonstrating that CCS can facilitate urban planning and management strategies to improve the resilience of cities. With a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, CURE has identified eleven cross-cutting applications between CCS that correspond to the major dimensions of urban sustainability and align with user needs. These applications have been integrated into a cloud-based platform known as DIAS (Data and Information Access Services), which is capable of delivering reliable, usable and relevant intelligence to support the development of downstream services towards enhancing resilience planning of cities throughout Europe

Anthropogenic Heat Flux Estimation from Space: Results of the first phase of the URBANFLUXES Project

H2020-Space project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites) investigates the potential of Copernicus Sentinels to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component of the Urban Energy Budget (UEB). URBANFLUXES advances the current knowledge of the impacts of UEB fluxes on urban heat island and consequently on energy consumption in cities. This will lead to the development of tools and strategies to mitigate these effects, improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In URBANFLUXES, the anthropogenic heat flux is estimated as a residual of UEB. Therefore, the rest UEB components, namely, the net all-wave radiation, the net change in heat storage and the turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes are independently estimated from Earth Observation (EO), whereas the advection term is included in the error of the anthropogenic heat flux estimation from the UEB closure. The project exploits Sentinels observations, which provide improved data quality, coverage and revisit times and increase the value of EO data for scientific work and future emerging applications. These observations can reveal novel scientific insights for the detection and monitoring of the spatial distribution of the urban energy budget fluxes in cities, thereby generating new EO opportunities. URBANFLUXES thus exploits the European capacity for space-borne observations to enable the development of operational services in the field of urban environmental monitoring and energy efficiency in cities. H2020-Space project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites)investigates the potential of Copernicus Sentinels to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component of the UrbanEnergy Budget (UEB). URBANFLUXES advances the current knowledge of the impacts of UEB fluxes on urban heatisland and consequently on energy consumption in cities. This will lead to the development of tools and strategies tomitigate these effects, improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In URBANFLUXES, the anthropogenic heatflux is estimated as a residual of UEB. Therefore, the rest UEB components, namely, the net all-wave radiation, the netchange in heat storage and the turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes are independently estimated from EarthObservation (EO), whereas the advection term is included in the error of the anthropogenic heat flux estimation from theUEB closure. The project exploits Sentinels observations, which provide improved data quality, coverage and revisittimes and increase the value of EO data for scientific work and future emerging applications. These observations canreveal novel scientific insights for the detection and monitoring of the spatial distribution of the urban energy budgetfluxes in cities, thereby generating new EO opportunities. URBANFLUXES thus exploits the European capacity forspace-borne observations to enable the development of operational services in the field of urban environmentalmonitoring and energy efficiency in cities