Urban growth and land administration
Cities announce plans. Satellites record outcomes.
Cities grow faster than planners map them. Satellites do not blink.Urban expansion and boundary mapping
Satellite imagery from Sentinel-2, Landsat and Sentinel-1 SAR can track the outward spread of built-up areas with annual or sub-monthly cadence, exposing where urban boundaries on official maps have fallen behind reality.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLISentinel-1 C-band SAR
Corrugated iron reads differently from concrete. That difference is mappable.Informal settlement detection from satellite imagery
Sub-metre optical imagery and spectral analysis can distinguish informal settlements from formal low-rise housing by roof material, street geometry, and building density. The method is powerful but not infallible: dense formal housing creates genuine ambiguity that honest analysis must flag.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet PlanetScope
Rooftops are visible. Knowing which ones are legal is the hard part.Building footprint extraction at city scale
High-resolution optical and SAR imagery can delineate individual building outlines across entire cities. The accuracy ceiling depends on pixel size, roof geometry, and how honestly the method accounts for SAR distortion.
Maxar WorldView-2 / WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades / Pléiades NeoTanDEM-X
Planning law moves slowly. Unauthorised construction does not.Land-use change detection for planning enforcement
Satellite change detection exposes unauthorised construction, green-belt encroachment and agricultural conversion before enforcement windows close. This page covers sensor choice, minimum detectable change size, and what courts and planning tribunals actually accept as evidence.
Sentinel-2 MSIMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Cadastres lie. Rooftops do not.Property tax base mapping from satellite data
Satellite imagery can count, measure, and roughly value taxable structures even where ground records are absent or decades out of date. This page explains which sensors do what, where the method breaks down, and what a municipality can realistically expect from a first survey.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3Planet PlanetScope
Cities count roads precisely. Their trees remain educated guesses.Urban green-space audit and canopy mapping
Satellite multispectral and LiDAR data can quantify urban green space with far more rigour than ground surveys alone, but separating canopy layers and correcting for seasonal bias demands careful method choices. This page explains what the sensors can and cannot resolve.
Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet SuperDoveMaxar WorldView-3
Cities glow at night. What that glow actually measures is complicated.Night-lights mapping of urban economic activity
Calibrated night-light radiance from VIIRS and DMSP-OLS reveals electrification extent, relative wealth gradients, and economic activity patterns. The signal is real but indirect: physics, saturation, and mixed light sources all require careful handling before any GDP inference is defensible.
VIIRS Day/Night Band (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)DMSP-OLS archiveLuojia-1 (LJ-1 01)
The census counts people. The satellite shows where they actually sleep.Population distribution modelling from built-environment data
Dasymetric mapping disaggregates census totals onto fine spatial grids by weighting them against satellite-derived proxies: building footprints, roof area, settlement extent, and night-light intensity. The method is powerful and the uncertainty is compounding. Both facts matter.
Sentinel-2 MSIMaxar WorldView-3VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB)
Concrete heats up. Satellites measure exactly how much.Urban heat island mapping from thermal infrared
Thermal infrared satellites measure land surface temperature across urban fabrics, revealing heat-island cores, cool corridors, and the stark contrast between asphalt and tree canopy. Resolution limits are real and matter for city planning.
Landsat 8/9 TIRSASTER TIRECOSTRESS (ISS)
Concrete cannot absorb rain. Satellites can tell you exactly how much concrete you have.Impervious surface mapping for urban flood and runoff modelling
Sealed surfaces drive flash-flood risk, yet most cities lack current maps of their true impervious fraction. Spectral unmixing of Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery, checked against SAR backscatter, produces impervious-fraction grids that feed directly into hydrological models.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLISentinel-1 SAR (C-band)
The deed says one thing. The image says another.Cadastral boundary verification using sub-metre imagery
Sub-metre commercial imagery lets land registries check registered parcel boundaries against physical reality at scale, flagging encroachments and area discrepancies before they become disputes. Accuracy requirements are strict and the legal status of satellite-derived boundaries is not equivalent to a ground survey.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView LegionMaxar WorldView-3
Permits say approved. Satellites say whether anyone showed up.Construction activity monitoring and project-stage tracking
Satellite imagery and SAR coherence time-series can track individual construction sites from ground-break to topping-out, independent of cloud cover. The method underpins permit compliance, infrastructure investment verification, and economic nowcasting in cities where ground inspection is slow or politically fraught.
Planet SkySatPlanetScopeSentinel-1 C-band SAR
Official road registers lie. Satellites can show what was actually built.Urban road network extraction from high-resolution imagery
Automated extraction of road centrelines, carriageway widths and junction geometry from sub-metre optical imagery closes the gap between what governments think their road network looks like and what is actually on the ground.
Maxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Cities grow upward. Planners are still looking sideways.Vertical urban growth and floor-count estimation
Horizontal expansion mapping misses the storey-by-storey densification reshaping urban floor-area supply. Stereo-derived surface models and multi-epoch height differencing reveal what footprint analysis cannot.
Airbus Pléiades Neo tri-stereoMaxar WorldView-3 stereoTanDEM-X
Canopy maps count green. Only crown detection counts trees.Individual urban tree detection and species classification
Satellite imagery at sub-metre resolution can delineate individual urban tree crowns, estimate their diameter, and, with hyperspectral data, classify species or functional type. Each method has a hard resolution floor and a candid set of failure modes.
Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SuperDove (PlanetScope)ASI PRISMA
A rooftop's solar yield is decided by geometry. Satellites can measure it.Rooftop solar potential mapping from DSM and irradiance data
Stereo and SAR-derived surface models, combined with satellite irradiance records, let planners estimate per-building photovoltaic yield before a surveyor sets foot on site. The method has real limits: rooftop obstructions and cloud seasonality both introduce uncertainty that honest analysis must quantify.
TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on)Airbus Pléiades Neo tri-stereoCAMS McClear / Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service solar irradiance
Cars are stationary. Pricing policy should not be.Urban parking utilisation monitoring from very-high-resolution revisit
Sub-metre satellite imagery acquired at multiple times of day lets analysts count parked vehicles across surface car parks and on-street bays, producing occupancy curves that inform dynamic pricing and land-value assessments. The method is honest about what it cannot see: covered decks, underground structures, and steeply oblique acquisitions above 30 degrees off-nadir.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pléiades Neo
Concrete and bare soil look identical in RGB. Physics disagrees.Urban surface material classification using spectral indices
Multispectral and shortwave-infrared reflectance ratios separate roofing and paving materials that visible bands cannot distinguish, supporting heat-island modelling, runoff coefficients and informal-settlement characterisation.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIMaxar WorldView-3 SWIR
The ground moves a few millimetres. The bill arrives in billions.Urban land subsidence mapping for infrastructure risk
InSAR time-series analysis detects millimetre-scale vertical ground motion across entire cities, pinpointing differential settlement before it cracks foundations, buckles pipelines or derails trains.
Sentinel-1 IW SLC (C-band, 5.6 cm wavelength)COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (X-band, 3.1 cm wavelength)TerraSAR-X / TanDEM-X (X-band)
Clouds block cameras. SAR reads through both.Urban flood extent rapid mapping during and after events
SAR backscatter change detection maps open-water extent in flooded cities through the cloud cover that defeats optical sensors. Sentinel-1, COSMO-SkyMed and Capella Space provide the imagery; honest analysis requires acknowledging what radar shadow hides.
Sentinel-1 GRD (C-band, ESA)COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (X-band, ASI)Capella Space SAR (X-band, commercial)
Waste absorbs light differently. That difference is measurable from orbit.Illegal waste site and open-dump detection in urban fringes
Open dumps and unauthorised tipping grounds leave spectral fingerprints in SWIR and visible bands that change over time. Satellite analysis can flag candidate sites across entire city peripheries in days, though field verification before enforcement remains essential.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIPlanet Dove
The lake boundary is fixed by law. The shoreline is not.Urban waterbody and riparian encroachment mapping
Satellite water-index time series and sub-metre imagery can distinguish legally protected riparian buffers from seasonally shifting shorelines, giving enforcement agencies defensible evidence of permanent encroachment.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 4–9 archiveAirbus Pléiades Neo
Listed buildings change quietly. Sub-metre imagery does not lie.Heritage and historic district change detection for conservation
Very-high-resolution optical satellites can detect single-storey additions, roof replacements and demolitions on registered historic buildings before enforcement windows close. But nadir geometry has real limits on narrow streetscapes, and cloud cover imposes latency that planners must plan around.
Maxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Cities plan recreation equity. Satellites find what the registry missed.Sports and recreation facility audit from satellite imagery
Spectral classification and shape-template matching across Planet, Sentinel-2 and Pléiades Neo imagery can inventory formal and informal sports facilities city-wide, exposing gaps in provision that ground surveys routinely miss.
Planet Dove (PlanetScope)ESA Sentinel-2 MSIAirbus Pléiades Neo
Zoning maps say one thing. Rooftops and lorry parks say another.Commercial and industrial land-use zoning compliance audit
Satellite imagery combined with SAR activity signatures and object-based classification can identify parcels operating outside their gazetted zoning category, flagging candidates for ground inspection before enforcement action.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
The dead take up space. Cities rarely budget for how much.Cemetery and burial ground expansion monitoring
High-resolution satellite imagery can track cemetery expansion, encroachment disputes and new grave-plot formation at sub-metre scale, giving land administrators an auditable spatial record where ground surveys are impractical.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView LegionPlanet SkySat
Governments report improvements. Satellites can check.Slum upgrading programme progress tracking over time
Very-high-resolution multi-epoch imagery tracks physical changes in roof material, structure regularity and road access across informal settlements, providing an independent audit of whether slum-upgrading programmes are delivering measurable outcomes on the ground.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3Planet SkySat
Markets appear every Wednesday. Satellites can prove it.Informal market and street-trading area mapping
Informal markets are invisible to cadastral records yet visible from orbit. Temporal stacking of very-high-resolution imagery reveals the periodic canopy signatures that betray weekly or daily trading cycles, giving municipalities a defensible evidence base for revenue, health and transport decisions.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pléiades Neo
Utilities know where their towers should be. Satellites confirm where they are.Urban electricity grid infrastructure mapping from imagery
Sub-metre optical and SAR imagery can locate transmission towers, substations and overhead distribution lines with enough precision to supplement or challenge an ageing asset register. Underground cables remain invisible to optical sensors, and the confusion between transmission towers and mobile masts is a real operational problem.
Maxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
A school exists on the map. That tells you nothing about who can reach it.School and health facility access mapping from built-environment data
Satellite-derived building footprints, road networks and gridded population data combine to show which urban residents fall outside realistic catchment distances of schools and health facilities, and which planning assumptions have been quietly wrong for years.
Sentinel-2 MSIMaxar WorldView-3WorldPop gridded population
Ground monitors tell you one point. Physics tells you the whole city.Urban air quality proxy mapping from satellite aerosol and NO2 data
Satellite-derived aerosol optical depth and tropospheric NO2 columns can be disaggregated to sub-kilometre resolution using land-use regression, producing spatially continuous pollution proxies where ground networks are absent or patchy.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIMODIS MAIAC AODSentinel-2 MSI
Barriers show up in the data. Gaps in them show up too.Urban noise barrier and acoustic infrastructure mapping
Very-high-resolution optical imagery and airborne LiDAR can locate, classify, and audit roadside noise barriers at city scale, revealing material type and continuity gaps that ground surveys miss or price out.
Pleiades NeoWorldView-3Airborne LiDAR
The cadastre says one plot. The satellite counts four rooftops.Plot subdivision and densification detection within existing urban fabric
Rear-garden infill and informal plot splitting rarely appear in land registries until years after construction. Multi-date sub-metre imagery and building-footprint differencing catch them as they happen.
Pleiades Neo (Airbus)WorldView Legion (Maxar)SkySat (Planet Labs)
Billboards cast shadows. Shadows reveal what the licence register does not.Outdoor advertising and billboard inventory mapping
Sub-metre optical satellites and oblique aerial imagery can detect, locate, and height-estimate large outdoor advertising structures across an entire city in days, exposing the gap between what operators have licensed and what is actually standing.
WorldView-3Pleiades NeoOblique aerial imagery (e.g. Nearmap, Cyclomedia, Vexcel)
No turnstiles at the kerb. Physics still counts the queue.Public transit stop activity estimation from very-high-resolution revisit
Sub-hourly VHR passes over bus stops, ferry terminals and rail stations let analysts count vehicle queues and crowd proxies where fare-gate data simply do not exist. The method is indirect but spatially universal.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView LegionAirbus Pleiades Neo
Rain falls everywhere. Only some of it reaches the aquifer.Urban groundwater recharge zone identification from land-cover and soil data
Satellite-derived land cover, terrain, and soil permeability data can pinpoint the shrinking fraction of urban land where precipitation still infiltrates. The outputs feed directly into drainage bylaws and aquifer protection zones.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 9 OLI-2TanDEM-X
Pipes don't reach everywhere. Rooftops and rain already do.Rooftop rainwater harvesting potential mapping from imagery and rainfall data
Combining sub-metre building footprints, photogrammetric roof slopes, and long-term rainfall climatology lets planners rank every structure by harvestable volume before a single tank is installed.
Pleiades NeoWorldView-3CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data)
Vendors move overnight. Satellites remember what the road looked like yesterday.Pavement and carriageway encroachment detection by mobile structures
Multi-date very-high-resolution imagery from SkySat and Pleiades Neo can detect semi-permanent kiosks, canopies and stalls occupying pavements or traffic lanes, giving enforcement teams a spatially precise, time-stamped record of encroachment.
Planet SkySatAirbus Pleiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3
Rooftops age visibly. Satellites can read the calendar.Building age and construction-era proxy classification from spectral decay
Spectral reflectance shifts in weathered roofing materials, moss colonisation, and surface oxidation allow satellite imagery to estimate relative building age without a cadastral registry. The method is a proxy, not a legal record, and re-roofing breaks the signal.
ASI PRISMAMaxar WorldView-3ESA Sentinel-2
Customs data arrives late. Satellites do not wait.Container yard and port logistics area utilisation monitoring
VHR optical satellites count containers, estimate stack heights, and track yard occupancy at weekly or better cadence, giving port operators and trade analysts throughput proxies that bypass restricted or delayed customs reporting.
SkySat (Planet Labs)WorldView Legion (Maxar)Pleiades Neo (Airbus)
Residents know where their land ends. Satellites can now record it.Informal tenure boundary delineation for land formalisation programmes
Very-high-resolution optical imagery and drone-derived surface models can map de-facto plot boundaries in informal settlements, giving land-titling programmes a geometric starting point without a full cadastral survey.
Pleiades NeoWorldView-3Drone orthophotography (UAV)