Remote sensing applications for vegetation management in urban environments

• Main Author: Tooke, Thoreau Rory
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/11502

Vegetation has been identified as an essential component of healthy urban environments, and the benefits of urban vegetation range widely from influences on the physical conditions of the city to the social well-being of the people who reside in these areas. As a result, ongoing research is important to understand the dynamic spatial components of urban vegetation to help urban planners and scholars manage this valuable resource. Advanced remote sensing technologies, such as high spatial resolution sensors and laser scanning devices, are useful tools for examining urban environments since they can capture detailed information regarding the material and structural composition of the urban surface. By providing a complete coverage of urban environments remote sensing technologies enable new possibilities to quantify the contributions of urban vegetation for a wealth of active processes in urban areas. The studies in this thesis examine several remote sensing devices to demonstrate the influence of urban vegetation on both physical and social aspects of urban environments. Three studies comprise the body of this work. They present new geographic techniques using remote sensing for: 1) the detailed classification of urban vegetation conditions; 2) quantifying the contribution of trees to solar radiation available for building rooftops; and 3) examining socioeconomic disparities related to urban green-space.