PE&RS September 2015 - page 694

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September 2015

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

well-organized as it segments each type of the sensors into

groups based on their spatial resolution (i.e. coarse, medium

and high resolution), and for each segment, it presents both

high-level sensor parameter summaries and detailed recent

applications. By structuring the chapter this way, it provides

a cheat sheet for professionals to check for successful user

cases and technical details of urban monitoring effectively and

efficiently. Also noteworthy is Chapter 6, in which nightlight

remote sensing data by U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological

Satellite Program (DMSP) were evaluated. In recent years,

nightlight remote sensed imagery has drawn great attention

of both academic community and mass media. Nightlight

remote sensing has also become a unique arena to estimate

population, economic activities, urban sprawl, carbon

emissions, and so forth. DMSP nightlight remote sensing data

provide the longest continuous time-series at aglobal scale. The

opportunities that DMSP data can provide are undermined

due to lacking of non-flight calibration, which means digital

values of the same place from different time are not directly

comparable. In Chapter 6 a second-order regression model is

developed to inter-calibrate these values, and compare values

of different times. Based on the inter-calibration equations,

it then categorizes countries by correlating nightlight remote

sensing data with population and GDP.

To sum up, this book is an excellent resource for global

urban monitoring and provides up-to-date developments

in the field of urban remote sensing. It also advances

integrated urban sensing by incorporating “big data”.

However, in Section II, it lacks in discussing the global land

cover mapping at 30m accomplished National Geomatics

Center of China. A full chapter could have been dedicated to

validating the built-up area of this product to others. Also,

it could be a chapter in Section IV where opportunities and

challenges of utilizing microsatellite platforms (such as

PLANET LABS and Skybox) for global urban monitoring

and assessment are addressed. Despite these limitations,

this book provides researchers and professionals necessary

knowledge and methods for urban remote sensing in the

global perspective.

The book could be improved by including color diagrams

and more examples of applications. The many equations

related to engineering and scientific aspects of radar

design and signal processing and the frequent use of

jargon make the book less suitable for new learners and

application scientists in SAR. Nevertheless, I believe the

book serves as a comprehensive and valuable resource for

graduate students, academics, and practitioners actively

pursuing research in SAR.

Book Review—Multi-Antenna Synthetic Aperture Radar

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691

Book Review—Global Urban Monitoring and Assessment

through Earth Observation

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692

STAND OUT FROM THE REST

earn asprs

certification

ASPRS congratulates these recently Certified and

Re-certified individuals:

CERTIFIED PHOTOGRAMMETRIST

Patrick Cowan, Certification #1586