Urban Observation: Integration of Remote Sensing and Social Media Data

Urban and regional research is crucial for many applications such as public participation, land use, disaster management, and environmental monitoring, but it is a time-consuming and expensive procedure to collect necessary data. Remote sensing is an effective technology for urban observation, however, the spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution of observation sensors limits many situations in which remote sensing data cannot be fully utilized, especially in the field of urban observation. Recently, with the popularity of internet and smart mobile devices, social media containing spatial information is evolving rapidly, such as tweets, Flickr photos, and geolocated posts. These location-based social media data are leading new research areas, new technologies and methods, and new insights into urban observation. In this paper, we provide an overview on the integration and joint analysis of remote sensing and social media data in urban observation applications. We describe four opportunities in exploiting social media data: to investigate the relationship among humans, environment and urban, to help urban planning, to manage urban disaster, and to monitor urban environment. Although significant possibilities for a combination of remote sensing and social media data can be seen, our survey suggests that the fusion of these data sources will continue to profoundly change these technologies.