Urban environmental quality index estimation using satellite images

The implementation of public policies, to solve urban environmental problems, requires of information that in most of cities does not exist. Therefore, a model to obtain an urban environmental quality index (ICA), from satellite images, is proposed. From a Landsat ETM+ image of Cali-Colombia, five environmental indicators were obtained: temperature of surface (TS), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf water content index (LWCI), normalized difference soil index (NSI) and soil adjust vegetation index (SAVI), from which the ICA was estimated, in a neighborhood level, using multivariate analysis. The results show that: 1) exists a high correlation among the indicators, 2) higher values of ICA take place in neighborhoods with smaller constructed area and vice versa, and 3) there's a significant statistical differences of ICA among pairs of land use. The neighborhoods were grouped according to the index, emphasizing those that demand high-priority intervention of planning institutions.