Remote Sensing Applications at local scale

Remote sensing techniques have been used as a precious tool in risk evaluation to obtain a global and up-to-date view on territorial reality, also in zones where specific data are not available. The analysis has been applied both at local scale, where parameters relative to build-man structures have been extracted.

The high geometric resolution of SPOT panchromatic images (ground resolution 10 m) has been used to evaluate the built-up environment and to create a map of urban texture typologies of middle and large-size centers.

In particular it consists of:

• Build-up environment: built areas have been separated from open spaces using an automatic thresholding algorithm, appropriately designed. The coverage has been computed on the thresholded binary image multiplying the recognized built area pixels by the ground resolution. This parameter can be used for quick and rough estimates of the extent of the built areas.
  
  

• Map of urban typologies: a dedicated algorithm has been implemented for urban texture analysis. Urban center can be described through the texture analysis of the geometrical structures formed by the spatial distribution of urban elements on the image. This map gives a classification of urban centers based on the permeability of building blocks with respect to an intervention in case of seismic event.

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Project Coordinator: Gaetano Zonno zonno@irrs.mi.cnr.it