Monitoring the built-up environment of Shanghai on the street-block level using SAR and volunteered geographic information

ABSTRACT

In this geo-statistical analysis of change detection, we illustrate the evolution of the built-up environment in Shanghai at the street-block level. Based on two TerraSAR-X image stacks with 36 and 15 images, covering the city centre of Shanghai for the time period from 2008 to 2015, a set of coherence images was created using a small baseline approach. The road network from Open Street Map, a volunteered geographic information product, serves as the input dataset to create street-blocks. A street-block is surrounded by roads and resembles a ground parcel, a real estate property – a cadastral unit. The coherence information is aggregated to these street-blocks for each observation and the variation is analysed over time. An analysis of spatial autocorrelation reveals clusters of similar behaviours. The result is a detailed map of Shanghai highlighting areas of change. We argue that the aggregation and grouping of synthetic aperture radar coherence image information to real-world entities (street-blocks) is comprehensible and relevant to the urban planning process. Therefore, this research is a contribution to the community of urban planners, designers, and government agencies who want to monitor the development of the urban landscape.