Water in the City and Remote Sensing

Abstract

At present, climate change is particularly evident in areas heavily used by man. Such localities are mainly urbanized areas. With the increment in urban area and construction related to urban development, the hydrological regime of such sites is disrupted. When the natural character of the surface has changed, where precipitation, evapotranspiration and outflow of water from the area has been balanced, there is now an increase in territories that are impermeable and caused almost 100% runoff. The influence of the built-up area on the temperature increase in urbanized areas in comparison with the surrounding landscape is also known as a thermal island. The identification of the current status and possible potential interventions in the water regime of cities is provided by the possibility of using information obtained from the satellite monitoring of the Earth's surface. The range of areas in urbanized areas contributing to runoff can be ascertained by remote sensing, where in particular using multispectral images, where it is possible to distinguish surface characteristics using LAI and controlled image classification. At the same time, it is possible to identify areas that could be used to create space for rainwater infiltration and its accumulation below the surface. The paper evaluates the extent of changes in land use in Nitra from 1954 to 2017. The growth of areas with minimal infiltration capacity in the area of the Slovak University of Agriculture is identified. Possibilities of use of rainwater and their accumulation in the monitored area are analyzed.