Best Practices for Urban Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data Acquisition and Processing

Abstract

There is an increase in use of hyperspectral remote sensing to map, monitor, and model the urban environment. This is due to the development of hardware and software systems that enable collecting hyperspectral images from aircraft based platforms. While hyperspectral data have many benefits relative to traditional multispectral data, such as fine spectral and spatial resolutions, hyperspectral data acquisition and processing is fraught with challenges that must be considered. This chapter discusses some of the common issues associated with acquiring and using hyperspectral data in urban areas. Specific issues include flight pattern planning, geometric accuracy (GPS/INS problems and square pixels), impact of aircraft flight dynamics, radiometric accuracy and correction, field data collection, data transformation techniques, data storage, and many others. The chapter also describes ways to address these issues. We think that the topics discussed in this chapter are timely because while hyperspectral remote sensing with remotely piloted aerial systems (e.g., fixed wing drones, quadcopters, octocopters) has not yet become popular we are already observing that these systems are being used to collect very high spatial resolution multispectral aerial imagery for many applications, and we think that hyperspectral remote sensing may become even more popular in urban areas with remotely piloted aerial systems. In this chapter, we share our experience of collecting, processing, and using hyperspectral data from aircraft platforms to study urban environments and promote urban sustainability.