Earth Observation and the Urban – when, how and why did cities become linked to outer space?
Earth Observation data is increasingly important for how cities function and are accessible to inhabitants. For example, urban digital twins of cities rely on advanced methods of analysing areal imagery. Geospatial technologies are said to become the new artificial extensions of how cities are built, imagined and ultimately governed. In this project, we will trace this development back to its roots, how the urban became a subject of interest for the EO community and what we can learn from that history about future urban and orbital entanglements.
For this project, you will conduct (digital) archival and literature research to map out the rise of urban earth observation (or other near-orbit geospatial technologies and their entanglement with contemporary city life). We will analyse the important actors in this development and what geographical patterns can be identified. Squarely engaging with the emergent field of critical remote sensing, this project will query the link between (narratives about) technical capabilities in earth observation and urban development trajectories.
Bennett, M. M., Chen, J. K., Alvarez León, L. F., & Gleason, C. J. (2022) The politics of pixels: A review and agenda for critical remote sensing. Progress in Human Geography, 46(3), 729-752. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325221074691
Kostakis, V., Pazaitis, A. and Liarokapis, M. (2023) “Beyond high-tech versus low-tech: A tentative framework for sustainable urban data governance,” Big Data & Society. SAGE Publications. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231180583.
Klimburg-Witjes, N., Poechhacker, N., and Bowker, G. C. (2021) Sensing In/Security: sensors as transnational security infrastructures: Mattering Press.
This project can be adapted by focussing on (one or multiple) cities to identify their challenges in linking to the orbital or to help them map out how interdependent their systems are with what kinds of EO applications to facilitate more effective citizen engagement in these developments. Alternatively, an urban-focused EO project could be approached to identify, explore, structure and address a challenge that requires a more social scientific evaluation of their work.