Contribution of Earth Observation and Geospatial Information for Urban Planning of Historic Cities’ Centres: The Case Study of Nicosia, Cyprus
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Case Study
2.1. Nicosia Historic City Centre
2.2. National Spatial Data Infrastructures: Brief State of the Art in Cyprus
3. Datasets and Methodology
3.1. Data Selection Over Time Period 1984–2020
3.2. Methodology
4. Results
4.1. Spectral Signatures
4.2. Comparison of Indices Used for Enhancement of Built-Up Areas
4.3. Diachronic Spatial Analysis
4.3.1. Standard Deviation Analysis over the Year-Pairs
4.3.2. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) over the Year-Pairs
4.4. Comparisson of the Results with Openily Available Geo-Spatial Information
4.4.1. Evaluation of Results through HR Imagery and Digital Globes Repositories
4.4.2. Evaluation of Results Using Open Geospatial Data and NSDI Services
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
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- The study was conducted using free, full and open (FFO) earth observation data (namely Landsat and Sentinel-2 multi-spectral optical imagery). Free distribution satellite imagery can foster a better uptake of such information for targeted solutions and applications;
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- The study detects and characterises some major morphological transformations within the walled city and around it. Main changes in the urban fabric were identified, underlining that significant changes occur in already dense urban areas and in a close proximity to an extremely well preserved cultural heritage monument i.e., Nicosia Venetian walls;
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- The limitation of this research involves the evaluation of changes that was only conducted visually on previously collected datasets. Further investigations could employ the use of spectro-radiometers for ground-truth data collection, satellite image calibration and elaboration of supervised classification products;
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- In terms of drawbacks, in order to process and interpret satellite imagery, high technical capacity is needed both in terms of software licences and processor capability as well as skilled personnel; these could often be the main weaknesses when not employing space-based data more systematically within public administration bodies;
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- The results were further been compared to (i) to high-resolution imagery, and digital globes repositories and (ii) specific layers provided as WMS by the NSDI. These last steps highlight how satellite-based products can easily be consulted within GIS environments by professionals with no compulsory prior knowledge of remote sensing data elaboration;
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- In addition, the results of this paper can be provided as WMS within existing geo-spatial repositories in order to integrate already freely available geospatial information provided by public administrations.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Year (Month-Date) | Image Type (Sensor) | Spatial Resolution in VIS/NIR | Spatial Resolution in SWIR | Spectral Resolution (μm) (Listed only Green-NIR-SWIR) |
---|---|---|---|---|
15 May 1984 | Landsat-5 | 30 m | 30 m | Green: 0.52–0.60 NIR: 0.76–0.90 SWIR: 2.08–2.35 |
12 June 2000 | Landsat-5 | 30 m | 30 m | Green: 0.52–0.60 NIR: 0.76–0.90 SWIR: 2.08–2.35 |
18 May 2020 | Sentinel-2A | 10 m | 20 m | Green: 0.56 NIR: 0.83 SWIR: 2.20 |
Index Name | Index ID | Bands Used | Formula | Application | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Normalised difference vegetation index | NDVI | NIR and Red | Mapping urban land cover and vegetation change | [29] | |
Normalised difference built-up index | NDBI | SWIR and NIR | Automatically mapping urban areas | [31] | |
Built-up index | BUI | SWIR, NIR and RED | NDBI−NDVI | Mapping urban built-up areas | [32] |
Point | 2001 | 2011–2013 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
1 | |||
2 | |||
3 | |||
4 | |||
5 | |||
6 |
Type of Data/Theme Name | Type of Access | Source | Year of Reference |
---|---|---|---|
Urban Atlas layer | Open geospatial data (download upon request as a registered user) | Copernicus Land Monitoring service | 2012 |
Orthoimagery (INSPIRE theme, DLS) | Web Map Service | NSDI * | 2014 |
Natural risks zones (INSPIRE theme; Water development Department) | Web Map Service | NSDI * | 2015 |
Hydrography (INSPIRE theme; Water development Department) | Web Map Service | NSDI * | 2015 |
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Cuca, B.; Agapiou, A. Contribution of Earth Observation and Geospatial Information for Urban Planning of Historic Cities’ Centres: The Case Study of Nicosia, Cyprus. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7023. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137023
Cuca B, Agapiou A. Contribution of Earth Observation and Geospatial Information for Urban Planning of Historic Cities’ Centres: The Case Study of Nicosia, Cyprus. Sustainability. 2021; 13(13):7023. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137023
Chicago/Turabian StyleCuca, Branka, and Athos Agapiou. 2021. "Contribution of Earth Observation and Geospatial Information for Urban Planning of Historic Cities’ Centres: The Case Study of Nicosia, Cyprus" Sustainability 13, no. 13: 7023. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137023