Mapping and monitoring Urban Environment through Sentinel-1 SAR data
About this good practice
By using Sentinel-1 SAR data it's possible to monitor the evolution of urban areas: a reliable, useful and cost-efficient support for regional planning.
Resources needed
Total cost for the completion and the release of the new land cover map for Veneto Region: 200.000 €;
Cost for the yearly update and maintenance: 50.000 €/ year.
Evidence of success
The images produced with this semi-automatic process resulted in a high overall accuracy (up to 90%) in comparison to images produced with traditional techniques, with errors lower than 1%–2% in regards to percentage of urban footprint monitoring (study by A. Semenzato, S. Pappalardo, D. Codato, U. Trivelloni, S. De Zorzi, S. Ferrari, M. Massironi, 2020).
Potential for learning or transfer
Since this methodology relies on open source tools and software and globally available free data, it can be easily replicated in other regions.