TITLE: "Monitoring world-wide urban land cover changes using ASTER: Preliminary results from the Phoenix, AZ LTER site"

M S Ramsey, W L Stefanov, and P R Christensen (Dept. of Geology, Arizona State Univ., Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404; ph. 602-965-1790; email: ramsey@elwood.la.asu.edu)

Remote sensing of urban environments has been limited in the past due to the low spatial resolution of most satellite-based instruments, as well as the lack of demand from city officials, planners, and scientists. As many "sun-belt" urban centers around the world continue to expand rapidly, the need to monitor urban land cover change and its impact on the surrounding environment becomes critical. The growth of urban ecology as an important field is evident with the first ever urban Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) projects awarded to Phoenix, AZ and Baltimore, MD in 1997. The Phoenix LTER project relies heavily on remote sensing data, integrating both Landsat TM classifications and airborne data sets with GIS databases. These products are used by field scientists and city planning officials. For example, an important product needed for air quality monitoring in arid regions is dust source locations. For this reason, the Geologic Remote Sensing Laboratory (GRSL) at Arizona State University is producing city-wide classifications of vegetation, soil type, and vacant land distribution. In the future, data is scheduled to be captured data twice per year over 100 of the world's largest urban centers with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) instrument launching in May, 1999. The urban monitoring will concentrate on cities in arid environments that are experiencing the fastest growth rates. The proposed effort will demand intense data processing and dissemination to local governments. Expected products are land use change maps, material identification, and urban heat island monitoring.

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Presented at: 13th Applied Geologic Remote Sensing Conference
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Date: 1-3 March 1999