Analysis of settlement structures based on a satellite mosaic of Austria

Project Leader: Dr. Klaus Steinnocher

Beginning: 08.2001

Since 1999 the Earth Observation Satellite Landsat 7 monitors the earth’s surface in 6 spectral bands with a ground resolution of 30m. For the first time in the Landsat program the satellite is equipped with an additional panchromatic sensor that scans the ground with a resolution of 15m. By means of image fusion the multispectral bands with the lower spatial resolution can be merged with the panchromatic image leading to 15m resolution multispectral bands. While the 30m resolution image data can be mapped in a scale of 1:100.000 the fused image product allows a mapping scale of 1:50.000, thus offering new applications for the image data.
Objective of the proejct is the derivation of a satellite image mosaic of Austria in natural colors. The mosaic will be based on 11 Landsat 7 orthorectified images covering the entire area of Austria. The final product will be a homogeneous raster data set with a resolution of 15m. This data set can support regional applications in the fields of planning, hydrology, glaciology, land use management or geology. A pilot application in the field of settlement analysis will show the applicability of the data set for regional planning purposes.