A Study on Urban-Scale Building, Tree Canopy Footprint Identification and Sky View Factor Analysis with Airborne LiDAR Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

Urbanization transforms simple two-dimensional natural spaces into complex three-dimensional (3D) artificial spaces through intense land use. Hence, urbanization continuously transforms vertical urban settings and the corresponding sky view area. As such, collecting data on urban settings and their interactions with urban climate is important. In this study, LiDAR remote sensing was applied to obtain finer-resolution footprints of urban-scale buildings and tree canopies (TCs). Additionally, a related sky view factor (SVF) analysis was performed. The study site comprised an area of Incheon Metropolitan City (501.5 km2). Results show that the proposed method can be applied to update institutional land maps, enhance land use management, and implement optimized and balanced urban settings.