Urban Forest Monitoring

The quality of an urban environment is heavily dependent on urban vegetation. City reserves and trees affect both the psychological and physical well-being of the inhabitants, acting as filters, oxygen producers and heat absorbers, as well as providing habitat for city fauna. There is also increasing importance being put on the mapping of impenetrable surfaces (the inverse of vegetation, water and bare soil) to understand the dynamics of urban run-off.

The management of urban vegetation can be greatly facilitated by the use of modern remote sensing methods. High resolution aerial data acquisition and Structure-from-Motion techniques allow fine-scale analysis of canopy health, growth stage and vegetation height. Coarser resolution satellite thermal data allows for the mapping of Land Surface Temperature, which is needed for the planning of vegetation planting programs to control heat islands which occur within the city. Such studies using remote sensing capture the data in an instant of time, so that variables such as temperature are not affected by time offsets that are inevitable with on-ground measurement.

Astron utilises airborne imagery from Aerometrex and together we have access to the data required to produce urban environmental variables, and the skills in remote sensing, spatial and numerical analysis to analyse and interpret the data, delivering the results in a format that is tailored to most efficiently inform management decisions.

For further information please refer to our case studies or our online brochure. To discuss urban forest monitoring with our experienced team of remote sensing specialists, please contact us on (08) 9421 9600 or via our online form.