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Assessing the accuracy of satellite derived global and national urban maps in Kenya

Assessing the accuracy of satellite derived global and national urban maps in Kenya
Assessing the accuracy of satellite derived global and national urban maps in Kenya
Ninety percent of projected global urbanization will be concentrated in low income countries (United-Nations, 2004). This will have considerable environmental, economic and public health implications for those populations. Objective and efficient methods of delineating urban extent are a cross-sectoral need complicated by a diversity of urban definition rubrics world-wide. Large-area maps of urban extents are becoming increasingly available in the public domain, as are a wide-range of medium spatial resolution satellite imagery. Here we describe the extension of a methodology based on Landsat ETM and Radarsat imagery to the production of a human settlement map of Kenya. This map was then compared with five satellite imagery-derived, global maps of urban extent at Kenya national-level, against an expert opinion coverage for accuracy assessment. The results showed the map produced using medium spatial resolution satellite imagery was of comparable accuracy to the expert opinion coverage. The five global urban maps exhibited a range of inaccuracies, emphasising that care should be taken with use of these maps at national and sub-national scale.
urban area mapping, urbanization, accuracy assessment
0034-4257
87-97
Tatem, A.J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Noor, A.M.
241236c3-43df-47b0-bcab-ff7c25318cc6
Ha, S.I.
9329d79b-d78d-4bc4-aa18-35ee6fc79586
Tatem, A.J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Noor, A.M.
241236c3-43df-47b0-bcab-ff7c25318cc6
Ha, S.I.
9329d79b-d78d-4bc4-aa18-35ee6fc79586

Tatem, A.J., Noor, A.M. and Ha, S.I. (2005) Assessing the accuracy of satellite derived global and national urban maps in Kenya. Remote Sensing of Environment, 96 (1), 87-97. (doi:10.1016/j.rse.2005.02.001). (PMID:22581985)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Ninety percent of projected global urbanization will be concentrated in low income countries (United-Nations, 2004). This will have considerable environmental, economic and public health implications for those populations. Objective and efficient methods of delineating urban extent are a cross-sectoral need complicated by a diversity of urban definition rubrics world-wide. Large-area maps of urban extents are becoming increasingly available in the public domain, as are a wide-range of medium spatial resolution satellite imagery. Here we describe the extension of a methodology based on Landsat ETM and Radarsat imagery to the production of a human settlement map of Kenya. This map was then compared with five satellite imagery-derived, global maps of urban extent at Kenya national-level, against an expert opinion coverage for accuracy assessment. The results showed the map produced using medium spatial resolution satellite imagery was of comparable accuracy to the expert opinion coverage. The five global urban maps exhibited a range of inaccuracies, emphasising that care should be taken with use of these maps at national and sub-national scale.

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Published date: 15 May 2005
Keywords: urban area mapping, urbanization, accuracy assessment
Organisations: Geography & Environment, PHEW – S (Spatial analysis and modelling), Population, Health & Wellbeing (PHeW)

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 344476
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/344476
ISSN: 0034-4257
PURE UUID: b353f361-376e-4a54-972d-695bc200faf3
ORCID for A.J. Tatem: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7270-941X

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Date deposited: 25 Oct 2012 08:38
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:43

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Contributors

Author: A.J. Tatem ORCID iD
Author: A.M. Noor
Author: S.I. Ha

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