GIS and remote-sensing-based urban-information system design and development: A case study for Kozlu, Zonguldak

Abstract

Urban growth is inevitable over the next two decades. The bulk of this growth will take place in less developed countries. This growth presents a formidable challenge for urban planners and managers. In this context, we consider some of the ways urban planners can make use of the recent developments in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote-Sensing (RS) technology to respond to this challenge. GIS projects were initiated in late 1980s in Turkey by both the public and private sectors. Currently, GIS and RS technology play very important roles for urban managers. At the present time, RS technologies are being continually improved; new satellites have been launched with imaging abilities enhanced by new techniques, allowing images to be obtained faster and at higher quality. Current applications use these imagery data for many purposes, among them automatic feature extraction from high-resolution satellite imagery. In this context, automatic and manual object extraction and GIS are the most important issues. In this study, the primary issue was the design and development of Urban Information Systems (UISs); another, more specific, goal was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of OrbView-3 and IKONOS imagery for their use in UIS. A test case, consisting of a UIS design, development and application, was executed for the Kozlu, Turkey area. Automatic and manual extraction methods were employed using pan-sharpened IKONOS and OrbView-3 images of the Kozlu urban test area. The NetCAD v5.0, eCognition v4.0.6 and MapInfo v9.0 software packages were used for automatic and manual extraction analyses. Digital reference-vector data were obtained from large-scale digital maps. The extracted results were then compared with a database of reference digital building and road information created from large-scale digital maps in a GIS software package. Thus, utilizing GIS-based analyses, the availability of UIS updating was tested with high-resolution imagery. Key words: Urban information systems, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote-Sensing (RS), high-resolution imagery.