Optical remote sensing

Abstract

Applications of Earth-observational remote sensing are rapidly increasing over urban areas. The latest regime shift from conventional urban development to smart-city development has triggered a rise in smart innovative technologies to complement spatial and temporal information in new urban design models. Remote sensing-based Earth-observations provide critical information to close the gaps between real and virtual models of urban developments. Remote sensing, itself, has rapidly evolved since the launch of the first Earth-observation satellite, Landsat, in 1972. Technological advancements over the years have gradually improved the ground resolution of satellite images, from 80 m in the 1970s to 0.3 m in the 2020s. Apart from the ground resolution, improvements have been made in many other aspects of satellite remote sensing. Also, the method and techniques of information extraction have advanced. However, to understand the latest developments and scope of information extraction, it is important to understand background information and major techniques of image processing. This chapter briefly describes the history of optical remote sensing, the basic operation of satellite image processing, advanced methods of object extraction for modern urban designs, various applications of remote sensing in urban or peri-urban settings, and future satellite missions and directions of urban remote sensing.