Remote sensing data for urban air quality assessment

The study focuses on the assessment of the potentialities of remote sensing data to study urban micro-climate and air quality. In urban area, air quality is quite dependent on the air flow drag which is influenced by the aerodynamic roughness parameters of the ground. These parameters are linked to the urban structural features and their topologies. They characterize the evolution of the vertical wind profile with the altitude. Most of all SAR ERS-1 and ERS-2 images with a time variability are very useful; for morphological urban structures extraction. To extract structural features spectral signatures of different terrain features are used to separate surface units for eastern part of Bucharest region and to classify them into general categories. Remote sensing data could be used for the mapping of the air quality parameters, the dust particulates concentration and the apparent temperature being highly correlated for Landsat TM6 data(thermal infrared band data). Spatial distribution of the dust particulates can be mapped for Bucharest metropolitan area based on LANDSAT TM and SPOT data.