Cities and municipalities face major challenges in times of climate change. As key actors in the transition towards climate neutrality, they require analysis, planning, decision-making processes and services to help them prioritise and justify the necessary measures and activities. One option for data-based decision-making is the use of satellite-based services. The Urban Sky research project is therefore collaborating with representatives from Austrian cities of various sizes and structures to identify challenges and needs. This information will be used to develop satellite-based services concepts for urban planning, neighbourhood development, natural hazards, and urban mobility, while taking into account the relevant legal and normative framework conditions. The project focuses on using freely available data such as that from the Copernicus programme. The aim is to explore the potential of the satellite data, review its feasibility and combine it to create useful services. The project also assesses the added value for cities, the market potential and the research requirements, and categorises and prioritises the services, resulting in actionable recommendations. To achieve this, the following research questions are answered: (1) What challenges do Austrian cities face regarding urban and neighbourhood planning? (2) How can satellite data help to solve these challenges? (3) Taking into account spatial and temporal resolution, what additional data and information is required to use satellite data effectively to overcome these challenges? Following a literature review, the topics were narrowed down to the following areas: buildings; green spaces and biodiversity; infrastructure; mobility; natural hazards; urban planning; and spatial planning. These areas were further discussed and specified during the first Stakeholderworkshop, which was attended by representatives of several Austrian cities varying in population and structure. Particularly urgent needs were identified focussing e.g. on buildings and potential renovation, solutions to reduce heat energy losses and the potential for redensification. In the field of natural hazards, key topics included small-scale air temperature monitoring and the development of early warning systems for floods or agriculture. In the context of infrastructure, the focus was on the detection of damage after extreme weather events and the analysis of photovoltaic (PV) potential in car parks. In addition, priorities were identified in the following areas: recording of traffic movements and parking space usage (mobility); calculating the degree of greening and tree canopy cover to comply with the EU Nature Restoration Regulation; and smart irrigation management (green spaces). Other priorities included urban heat island monitoring and climate risk analysis (urban planning). The applications are primarily based on time-series data from optical satellite missions, such as Sentinel-2 and commercial very high-resolution satellites like Pléiades, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions (such as Sentinel-1, NISAR, and future ROSE-L), and thermal missions, e.g. TRISHNA, ECOSTRESS, and the upcoming Land Surface Temperature Mission (LSTM) from the European Space Agency (ESA). A key outcome of the Urban Sky project is a structured study on the potential of satellite technology for urban and neighborhood planning. The study identifies and analyses existing satellite applications in cities (both nationally and internationally), and assesses their compatibility with current geodata sources. Based on the stakeholders‘ requirements, the study proposes ten potential applications to serve as a foundation for further RTI (research, technology, and innovation) initiatives.
Berg et al. (Thu,) studied this question.