Predicting Environmental Impacts Associated with Population Distribution and Land Use Using Remote Sensing and GIS: A Stormwater Runoff Example

The application of information collected by remote sensing satellites to urban related problems has developed at a fast pace during the last few years as a result of the availability of commercial satellites proving high spatial resolution data. These systems obtain image data with 4- m and 1m spatial resolutions that are one order of magnitude better than what was available until recently. These data can be processed automatically to yield information related to locations of interest (site-specific information), information about the surrounding areas (neighborhood information), and can be combined with other types of information such as census data (contextual information) to provide insight into current population distribution characteristics and the potential environmental impact of alternative urban development scenarios. This study was carried out within the City of Columbia, Missouri to assess the ability of using satellite remote sensing data and a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to characterize and analyze community development and population distribution to inform decisions regarding the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Phase II storm water requirements. The study utilized the multispectral data collected by the Ikonos satellite with 4 m spatial resolution to produce a land cover map for the city. The land cover information was the starting point to identify land use in the urban setting and to evaluate the potential impact of storm water runoff that might carry different types and amounts of pollutants from the land surface to streams.