Monitoring Urban Dynamics The European Commission's Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) programme has, in cooperation with the Agricultural Information Systems of the Space Applications Institute, launched a new project called MURBANDY (Monitoring Urban Dynamics). The overall goal of the project is to p... The European Commission's Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) programme has, in cooperation with the Agricultural Information Systems of the Space Applications Institute, launched a new project called MURBANDY (Monitoring Urban Dynamics). The overall goal of the project is to produce earth observation data on urban and surrounding areas, to follow changes in these areas over time, and to develop scenarios of urban growth. In its pilot phase MURBANDY will focus on 15 European cities. The project will have three main stages: - Implementation of an earth observation based procedure for monitoring cover changes in urban areas using very high resolution satellite imagery. Changes over 20 years or more will be measured. The data sets developed will be structured within a geographic information system framework that will also contain non-EO data to be used for analysis; - The computation of static and dynamic earth observation based urban indicators, as well as earth observation and non-space data on environmental indicators to help understand urban landscapes and their dynamics; - The development of scenarios of urban growth under current policies and economic systems to assess the sustainability of urban landscapes.
