Issue No. 4 (August 2007) - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

32 RECENT EVENTS
Current and Potential
Applications of
Earth Observation
Technology and
Recommendations for its
Use in Urban Areas
– A Two-day Workshop
對 地 觀 察 科 技 應 用 工 作 坊
Prominence of the Department of Land Surveying and
Geo-Informatics (LSGI) in the area of Earth Observation
(EO) for Urban Planning and Management was
demonstrated in a two-day workshop held on 20 and 21
November 2006 at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel.
The aim of the workshop was to provide a forum for
international researchers and scientists, specializing in EO,
to interact with practitioners working in different aspects
of city planning. Critical issues were examined with Hong
Kong being the point of reference. Delegates comprised
an international group of researchers, and practitioners
from Hong Kong government departments (Figure 1),
providing a mixture of top-down demonstrations and
case studies, with bottom-up feedback from user groups.
The workshop addressed four major application areas
in the light of recent technological developments in EO
including high resolution, multi-sensor systems, and
advances in computer speed and graphics capability. The
application areas were: environmental monitoring,
land use/land cover mapping, planning, and
geotechnical monitoring.
The workshop concluded:
that with the exception of thermal modeling, the
impediments to wider use of EO data in urban planning
and management are educational and institutional, not
technical; that the technology for image data acquisition
is available and its wider utilisation in cities generally,
and especially in Hong Kong, is mainly dependent
on increased awareness of its availability among
Figure 1. Speakers and delegates attending the workshop