Satellite monitoring of urbanization in China for sustainable development: Final results

Abstract

The overall objectives of this research are to investigate spaceborne SAR data, optical data and fusion of SAR and optical data for urbanization monitoring in China, and to assess the impact of urbanization on the environment for sustainable development. Effective segmentation and classification methods for urban extent extraction and land cover mapping were developed. Several change detection algorithms and approaches using SAR and optical data were evaluated. Further, synergistic effects of multisensor SAR data as well as ASAR and HJ-1B data are examined. The results show that the developed methods were effective for urban extent extraction, land cover mapping and change detection. The fusion of multisensor spaceborne SAR as well as fusion of ASAR and HJ-1 data were beneficial for urban land cover mapping. The spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization in China were analyzed. The results show that rapid urbanization in Yangtze River Delta, Jingjinji and Pearl River Delta has a significant impact on the environment in terms of landscape fragmentation and ecosystem services.