A Conceptual List of Indicators for Urban Planning and Management Based on Earth Observation

Abstract: Sustainable development is a key component in urban studies. Earth Observation(EO) can play a valuable role in sustainable urban development and planning, since itrepresents a powerful data source with the potential to provide a number of relevant urbansustainability indicators. To this end, in this paper we propose a conceptual list of EO-basedindicators capable of supporting urban planning and management. Three cities with differenttypologies, namely Basel, Switzerland; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Tyumen, Russia were selectedas case studies. The EO-based indicators are defined to effectively record the physicalproperties of the urban environment in a diverse range of environmental sectors such asenergy efficiency, air pollution and public health, water, transportation and vulnerability tohazards. The results assess the potential of EO to support the development of a set of urbanenvironmental indicators towards sustainable urban planning and management.