Urban remote sensing using multiple data sets: past, present and future

This presentation aims at stimulating ongoing research and development on the topic of urban remote sensing exploiting multiple data sets by offering a bibliographic review of the state-of-the-art and a look at the future in terms of the identifiable needs and advancement potential. The increasing availability of large amounts of data suitable for urban applications demands the development of adequate algorithms and procedures for their (semi-) automatic characterization. This study takes stock of the current achievements as reported in the technical literature that are particularly relevant to the interests of the remote sensing & information technology (RS&IT) community. It is also aimed at foreseeing and proposing future lines of research, focusing on the algorithms and techniques particularly suited for multiple data sets analysis in the urban areas. Many sensor types (optical, thermal, laser, SAR) are considered, and particular attention is given to satellite data analysis. After a review of the existing literature, the paper describes interesting application fields that are very much open for further research and the potential that urban remote sensing and urban data fusion offer to end users.