Valuation of accessibility index through high-resolution satellite images and geographic information systems – A methodological proposal for planning the transport system

This paper develops a multidisciplinary methodology that aggregates remote sensing products and the resources available in geographic information systems – GIS, for transportation planning. The analyzed parameter is accessibility. Public managers can use the accessibility measures in order to promote an appropriate urban planning, mainly the highway network infrastructure and the public transportation system planning. The database was built getting the commercial and industrial (C&I) accessibility index for Osasco Municipality, located in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil. The proposed methodology consists of classifying of the IKONOS II satellite images (by an object-oriented classification) to extract the information necessary to estimate the accessibility index. The goal of this classification is to find the commercials and industrial establishments located in the study area. The spatial data are converted and analysed in a GIS environment and a C&I accessibility index is calculated using the parameters obtained from the satellite images. The main advantages of proposal are it reduction of cost and time spent on field researches or to bring up to recorded data. The commercial and industrial accessibility index by conventional method was calculated, using recorded data available in the Osasco Valuation of accessibility index through high-resolution satellite images and geographic information systems – A methodological proposal for planning the transport system MACHADO, Cláudia A. Soares; NÓBREGA, Rodrigo A. Albuquerque ; QUINTANILHA, José Alberto 12 WCTR, July 11-15, 2010 – Lisbon, Portugal 2 Municipality to validate the proposal. These two accessibility indexes are compared, so it is possible to conclude about the applicability of the proposed methodology.