Applied remote sensing for urban planning, governance and sustainability

Despite the promising and exciting possibilities presented by new and fast-developing remote sensing technologies applied to urban areas, there is still a gap perceived between the generally academic and research-focused spectrum of results offered by the “urban remote sensing” community and the application of these data and products by the local governmental bodies of urban cities and regions. While there is no end of interesting science questions that we can ask about cities, sometimes these questions don't match well with what the operational problems and concerns of a given city are. The authors present data from six urban regions from all over the world. They explain what the important questions are, and how one can use data and scientific skills to help answer them.