SatVu has partnered with Australian Nature Data Startup Office of Planetary Observations (OPO). This collaboration focuses on enhancing city planning and revolutionising urban greening through the integration of SatVu’s high-resolution thermal data and OPO’s nature data platform.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, OPO measures and monitors greening initiatives with its AI-powered Nature Data platform, providing fast and easy access to near real-time nature data. Combining this nature data with SatVu’s high-resolution thermal data enables evidence-based decision-making to better manage urban planning, assess the health of green spaces and optimise tree planting to create more sustainable and resilient cities.
In December 2023, OPO conducted Urban Heat Island context monitoring, canopy cover density and tree stress indexing across Darwin, Australia. The addition of Hotsat-1 data enhanced OPO’s insights and precisely indicated three areas of high prioritisation for new tree planting to combat high heat temperatures.
This successful collaboration comes as the UN expects a 13% increase in the number of people living in urban areas by 2050. Such rapid urbanisation coinciding with a continued rise in global temperatures poses a significant challenge in combating the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI).
The UHI intensifies heatwaves, exposing city-dwellers to thermal discomfort and heat stress. In fact, a case study in the UK found that during the 2003 European Heatwave (Europe’s hottest heat event in 500 years) 50% of all heat-related deaths during the 2003 heatwave in the West Midlands could be attributed to the UHI effect. This highlights the need for more detailed and frequent measurements of heat distribution in urban areas to assess the cost effectiveness and urgency of response to extreme heat events.
Currently available low-resolution thermal datasets (e.g., Landsat) cannot be relied upon to provide trustworthy street-level imagery. This makes datasets like those provided through the SatVu and OPO partnership, which offer building-level resolution data, a smart solution to address escalating climate challenges.
Narayan Buckley, Director, Northern Territory Government said: “Tools like OPOs Nature data platform have the potential to support evidence-based decision-making in urban planning and enhance society’s capacity to respond to climate challenges. The Northern Territory Government recognises this potential and has supported the development of OPO’s Nature Data platform through its Earth Observation for the Northern Territory (EO4NT) grant program”.
“With SatVu's advanced thermal imaging, we can better monitor urban heat islands, assess the health of green spaces, and optimise tree planting to create more sustainable and resilient cities,” says SatVu’s Business Development Climate & Sustainability Lead, Natalia Kuniewicz. “This technology empowers every level of governance to make informed decisions that promote greener, cooler, and more liveable urban environments.”
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