Urban Roads Network Detection from High Resolution Remote Sensing

The availability of high-resolution remote sensing data has created opportunities to gain new information about urban infrastructure. Here, high resolution ortho-imagery with three bands and maximum likelihood classification of images is used to obtain information about roads and pavement (i.e. transportation related) infrastructure. The cities of Phoenix, Arizona (for the years 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012) and Seattle, Washington (for 2002, 2005, 2009) were analyzed. We discuss the implications and utility of this (and other infrastructure) data for constructing metrics for urban growth and environmental sustainability.