Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Geology Building, Corner Rynveld and Merriman Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa; Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; Centre for Geographic Analysis, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Musakwa, W., Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Geology Building, Corner Rynveld and Merriman Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; Van Niekerk, A., Centre for Geographic Analysis, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Rapid urbanisation in many developing countries causes land transformation from agricultural, rural, and natural landscapes into urban areas. Data to monitor this transformation are often out of date, unreliable, not in standard format, cumbersome and expensive to collect or simply unavailable. This inhibits local authorities and other stakeholders’ capacity to monitor and leverage resources towards sustainable urban development. This paper investigates the use of earth observation (EO) data for supporting sustainable urban development planning. The study demonstrates that EO adds value to sustainable urban development by providing area-wide and up-to-date thematic and geometric characterisation of the urban built-up area, which would be difficult to obtain from other data sources. This helps local planning authorities to monitor urban growth and sustainability, and facilitate evidence-based decision-making and an array of other practical uses. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.