New Data and Approaches for Urban Analysis: Modelling Residential Densities

The potential of Remote Sensing (RS) data for understanding urban environments is best unlocked by augmenting satellite information with ancillary sources of data. Integrating urban RS with new, often commercial, sources of socio-economic data offers the prospect of creating vastly enhanced models of the form and functioning of urban settlements. This paper takes some steps towards that end-goal by considering the contribution that four different datasets make to generating improved models of residential densities for a study region of Bristol, England. These datasets, available in the UK, are: the 1991 Census; a satellite image; the Ordnance Survey GB's Address-Point, and Code-Point products. The authors argue that closer RS-GIS integration will create new opportunities for modelling and understanding urban systems. Such models are considered a necessary pre-requisite for effective and sustainable management of urban environments.