Monitoring Urban Development of Small Chinese Cities Using Innovative Aerial Surveying Technologies

Beside the enormous grow of Chinas mega-cities, also small cities and big villages show up an urban sprawl that makes a monitoring essential. Especially in the eastern part of the country, forced by the economic growth, the sprawl of urban fabric is extreme. This causes a need for a frequently and rapid monitoring in order to take pace in mapping and documentation. The typical turn rate of countrywide aerial surveys is not convenient to solve this task. Small scale, long intervals, and bad quality of the data hamper doing the job with sound scientific methods. The Hebei Bureau of Surveying and Mapping finally found a smart solution in the year 2006 and meanwhile ran several campaigns of even big areas. A combination of a medium format camera, a gyrostabilizer and a professional FMS were installed on a Trike for aerial survey missions. Quality and operability will be shown in the following paper.