An Example of Multitemporal Photogrammetric Documentation and

Spatial Analysis in Process Revitalisation and Urban Planning

Agnieszka Turek

, Adam Salach

, Jakub Markiewicz

, Alina Maciejewska

and Dorota Zawieska

Department of Spatial Planning and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography,

Warsaw University of Technology, Pl. Politechniki 1, Warsaw, Poland

Department of Photogrametry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Systems, Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography,

Warsaw University of Technology, Pl. Politechniki 1, Warsaw, Poland

Keywords: Revitalisation, Urban Planning, Multitemporal Spatial Analysis, GIS, Multisource Data, Photogrammetry.

Abstract: Urban space is undergoing permanent and dynamic transformations resulting from economic and social

changes, technological development and migrations of people from rural areas to cities. It strongly affects the

evolution of the landscape and city structures. Current photogrammetric techniques allow for the acquisition

of data for large areas within a relatively short time, and thus, allow for fast updating and verification of

existing data files. The authors of this paper have focused their research on the possibility to use multi-variant

spatial analysis in the process of revitalisation of degraded areas in cities. The industrial district of Warsaw

was selected for this study, where problems concerning the development of formally industrial areas located

in the attractive part of the city (close to the city centre) are extremely visible. As a result of urban

development, degraded areas are included within administrative boundaries of the city and have created urban

wastelands.

1 INTRODUCTION

Spatial planning and processes of revitalisation are

not sufficiently supported by geo-information

technologies and therefore are still time consuming

processes. The basic advantage in the use of

photogrammetric data in combination with their

processing in GIS systems for the needs of spatial

planning is the possibility to easily present spatial

phenomena and to visualise changes and trends which

take place within a given area. Graphical presentation

of the existing conditions, as well as proposed

transformation, simplifies and supports the decisions

made for those purposes (Ogryzek and Rząsa, 2017).

Recently, interest in the revitalisation of degraded

areas has grown. It is foreseen that this trend will

continue due to the development of legal means

which simplify such activities. The act of October 9,

2015 on revitalisation was enacted and its provisions

are the implementation of one of the basic

components of the Polish National Revitalisation

Plan, which is currently being developed. The

introduction of general frames of formal

implementation of revitalisation processes include

many changes which aim at the creation of the system

of incentives for revitalisation. This document

stresses the mutual relations of the effects of

revitalisation and changes in the system of local

spatial planning, which lead to limitations of

uncontrolled suburbanisation and direction of

investments to degraded areas in cities.

According to Art. 2.1. of the act of October 9,

2015, revitalisation "is the process which leads

degraded areas out from crisis conditions; this

process is performed in a complex way, through

integrated actions for the benefits of the local society,

space and economy, and is territorially focused and

performed by stakeholders of revitalisation, based on

the municipal programme of revitalisation” (Dz. U.

of 2017, item 1023, 1529, 1566).

On the one hand, the needs for the use of attractive

locations of degraded areas and, on the other hand,

the lack of the methodology of the revitalisation

process considering specific features of those areas,

generate the demands for development of

revitalisation procedures, integrated with the needs of

the local society, specified in strategies of

development of territorial units.

The objective of the experiments carried out in

this study was to generate multitemporal photo-

Turek, A., Salach, A., Markiewicz, J., Maciejewska, A. and Zawieska, D.

An Example of Multitemporal Photogrammetric Documentation and Spatial Analysis in Process Revitalisation and Urban Planning.

DOI: 10.5220/0006701902230230

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management (GISTAM 2018), pages 223-230

ISBN: 978-989-758-294-3

223

grammetric products to develop the methodology of

visualisation and the use of spatial analysis for the

spatial planning and revitalisation of the selected

degraded areas. Unfortunately, in the case of archival

photographs, several problems with processing this

kind of data exist. From the photogrammetric

perspective, archival datasets are hardly ever

provided together with information that is needed to

perform a standard approach to scanned, analogue

photograph processing using professional

photogrammetric software (such as camera

specification and approximate values of exterior

orientation parameters) (Gonçalves, 2016).

2 THE POSSIBILITES OF THE

USE OF PHOTOGRAMMETRIC

PRODUCTS IN SPATIAL

PLANNING

Nowadays, actual image processing algorithms allow

us to regenerate photogrammetric documentation to

create new opportunities to carry out historical urban

analysis. It might be noticed that they store unique

information about the past that often is useful for

many disciplines such as topographic mapping,

geology, geography, architecture, archelogy, etc.

(Nocerino et al., 2012; CMAP, 2017). Based on

archival photographs, it is possible to generate 3D

models characterized by different levels of detail

(Nocerino et al., 2012), orthoimages (Redecker,

2008) and digital terrain models (Redecker, 2008;

Zawieska et al., 2017). Modern photogrammetric

algorithms, which depend on the image-based

approach together with the photo interpretation and

3D reconstruction techniques, allow not only the

generation of 3D documentation, but also information

about the period in question to be added. A spatio-

temporal or 4D modelling approach allows

researchers to identify, describe, and subsequently

analyse changes in individual scenes and buildings as

well as across landscapes. Such data about change

through time assist researchers as they work to

reconstruct changes in buildings and try to understand

landscape transformations (Nocerino et al., 2012).

Multi-temporal image analysis is used for many

different purposes such as the investigation of land

cover dynamics (Ratcliffe and Henebry, 2004),

detection of change in historic city centres (Patias et

al., 2011), creation of 4D interactive presentations of

heritage sites (El -Hakim et al., 2008), modelling of

architectural changes (Stefani et al., 2011), 4D city

modelling (Schindler, 2010) and urban analysis

(Vizzari, 2011).

Nowadays, the photogrammetric approach for

historical image processing is based on the structure-

from-motion (SfM) and multiview-stereo (MVS)

approach, which is a combination of

photogrammetric and computer vision methods. It is

a fully automated 3D reconstruction technique, which

refers to the simultaneous estimation of camera

orientation, self-calibration and dense point cloud

generation (Moussa, 2014; Zawieska et al., 2017).

However, (in many cases) the processing of historical

images is generally done with semi-manual

procedures, such as finding corresponding tie points,

measuring ground control points, image bundle

adjustment and segmentation/classification steps

(Nocerino et al., 2012). During the analysis of

historical aerial photos, there can be several sources

of error (Redecker, 2008; Nocerino et al., 2012):

a) inaccuracy or total lack of meta -information

about inner orientation (focal length and

coordinates of fiducial marks) and additional

(i.e., distortion) parameters;

b) missing specifications about the flight

mission (especially flying height);

c) poor radiometric image quality (e.g. haze,

image darkness, non-uniform luminosity,

etc.);

d) distortions caused by roll and pitch due to

sudden movements of the plane;

e) improper transport or storage procedures of

the film (e.g. humidity, temperature, etc.)

and

f) inaccurate processing of original films or

hardcopies in field laboratories.

2.1 Location of Experiments

Analyses were performed for a selected part of the

Wola district in Warsaw, which covers an area of

1292 ha. This area is characterised by its location

close the City Centre (Śródmieście) district. It is an

attractive area in relation to location and investment

opportunities; however, due to the high level of

degradation and the presence of neglected post-

industrial and railway areas, it remains incompletely

arranged. This area also requires the presence of

activities which would contribute to its revitalisation.

2.1.1 The Coverage of Local Spatial

Development Plans

The study of the conditions and directions of the

spatial management and local plans of spatial

GISTAM 2018 - 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management

224

development are the most important planning

documents in Poland at the local level of planning.

The local plan of spatial development is the local law

right and consists of provisions concerning the area

destination and distribution of public investments and

specifies the ways and conditions of development. In

the Wola district, 15 local development plans exist

covering the total area of approximately 1,162 hecta-

res, and local plans covering the total area of approxi-

mately 156 hectares are under development. An area of

126 hectares is not covered by the local plans (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: A map presenting the coverage of existing spatial

management plans in the Wola district.

2.2 Materials and Methods of Research

Multi-source, multitemporal data were used in this

study (between 1976 and 2013). The following

datasets were used for experiments:

a) archival data:

- 8 photographs from 1976, scale 1:18500;

- 10 photographs from 1982, scale 1:20000;

- 7 photographs from 1987, scale 1:20000;

- 6 photographs from 1990 scale 1:20000.

b) current data:

- orthophotomap RGB from 2013, GSD 10 cm;

- classified point cloud from aerial laser scanning

(2013).

Salach (2017) suggests an alternative method to

processing archival photographs. In this method, in

the first step, scanned photographs are pre-processed

using the open source SAPC application (Fig. 2a).

Pre-processing consists of transforming scanned

archival photographs to a form with specificity

similar to digital images, i.e. the same principal point

position in each photograph and the same resolution

achieved through cutting out the black photographic

frame (Fig. 2b). Next, aerial triangulation of pre-

processed photographs is performed using Structure

from Motion software. This approach may be very

useful and effective, essentially in cases with a lack

of required information about the camera and exterior

orientation parameters.

a) b)

Figure 2: a) Main window of SAPC application; b)

Example of pre-processing of archival photographs in the

SAPC application.

Using the above methodology, archival photographs

of the test area were pre-processed using the SAPC

application. Aerial triangulation was then performed

using Agisoft PhotoScan software. Ground control

points used to orientate archival photographs were

acquired from current orthophotomaps (Fig. 3). Z-

coordinates were assigned to those points basing on

the LiDAR point cloud.

Figure 3: Example of GCPs used to align archival

photographs.

In the next step, archival orthophotomaps/true-

orthophotomaps and point clouds from dense image

matching were generated and processed into digital

surface models (DSM). The figure below presents a

fragment of the test site on the archival point cloud

(1990) (Fig. 4a) and on the LiDAR point cloud (Fig.

4b):

An Example of Multitemporal Photogrammetric Documentation and Spatial Analysis in Process Revitalisation and Urban Planning

225

Figure 4: a) The test site on the archival point cloud (1990); b) The test site on the LiDAR point cloud.

Additionally, the DTM and DSM were generated

based on the point cloud from laser scanning.

2.3 Performed Analyses

2.3.1 Analysis of Terrain Surface Changes –

Buildings, Development and

Vegetation Cover

Using the classified LiDAR point cloud it is possible

to determine the percentage of green areas (as for

2013) divided into low, medium and high vegetation,

as well as buildings located within the test site. In the

first step, the LiDAR cloud was processed to the

raster which represented the dominating class in the

GRID of 1m resolution. Then raster was then

processed into a polygon layer (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: The test site divided into land cover classes.

After summing up the areas of polygons assigned

to particular classes, it was simple to calculate the

percentage of analysed classes in the test site: low

vegetation – 42.54 %, medium vegetation –1.30 %,

high vegetation –23.97 %, buildings –19.85 %. This

data allows us to evaluate the intensity of building

development, as well as to determine the percentage

of biologically active sites. The data indicated an

increase in development over the analysed period can

be observed.

The analysis of multitemporal data allows us to

investigate land cover changes. This influences the

determination of the current trends of development of

the analysed area and, as a result, allows us to plan

changes and eliminate negative trends. For this

purpose, the differential DSM was generated by

subtracting the archival DSM

archival

from the current

DSM

LiDAR

(2013).

Figure 6: Raster showing constructed and highly

modernised buildings within the test site in the period 1976-

2013. The orthophotomap of 1982 is shown in the

background.

After reclassification of the resulting differential

DSM, it was possible to locate buildings which have

been recently constructed within the test site (Fig. 6).

Furthermore, using the differential DSM, it is

possible to perform detailed analysis of changes in the

development of an area. The example below (Fig. 7)

shows a fragment of the test site in which several

skyscrapers (with heights of 200 m) were constructed.

GISTAM 2018 - 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management

226

Figure 7: Fragment of the test site in which several

skyscrapers were constructed.

It could be observed that within the period of 37

years, the percentage of industrial areas decreased

and the percentage of housing areas or degraded (not

arranged) areas increased. The differential DSMs

allow us to perform specialised analyses of the city

development structure and to define possible areas

where chemical pollutions of subsoils may occur

(Fig. 8).

Figure 8: An example of changes in post-industrial areas

towards housing development - a), b) example of an

archival orthophotomap with an industrial site, c), d)

current orthophotomap showing where industrial sites

existed in the past, and e), f) differential DSM overlapping

the current orthophotomap.

In order to analyse the vegetation growth, differential

DSMs since 1990 were used (Fig. 9). The polygons

below contain forest areas from the National

Database of Topographic Objects BDOT10k).

Figure 9: Visualisation of average vegetation growth (since

1990).

The analyses indicate the growth of vegetation,

especially in the north and south-west side of the

analysed area. New plantings can also be observed.

Such analyses can assist planners in determining the

area’s biologically active surface.

2.3.2 Analysis of Changes of the Road

Network

As a result of the performed analyses of the road

network changes, the changes in the types of

roadways, road beds and geometry were noticed

within the analysed period. The location of the second

subway line influenced the improvements of the

transportation accessibility of the analysed area.

Figure 10: Roads from the land and buildings register on

the background of an archival orthophotomap.

An Example of Multitemporal Photogrammetric Documentation and Spatial Analysis in Process Revitalisation and Urban Planning

227

The road network has not been dramatically changed.

New roads were constructed only at the edges of the

area, with the majority of the remaining changes

concerning the development of traffic lanes and chan-

ges to pavements. Closer to the city centre, the road

network has not been changed, as illustrated in Fig. 9.

2.3.3 Analysis of the Possibility to Locate

New Buildings - Visibility Analysis

In the case of areas located close to the city centre, it

is particularly important to perform visibility

analysis. This type of analysis can identify the

locations of new buildings in such a way that new

objects are sufficiently illuminated and not obscured

by other buildings. According to the ordnance of the

Minister of Infrastructure of April 12, 2002 regarding

technical conditions which should be met by

buildings and their locations, “the distance between a

building with rooms dedicated for the permanent stay

of people and another object should allow for natural

illumination of those rooms” (Art.13.1.). This

condition is met if between the arms of the angle of

60 degrees, any obscuring part of the same building

or another obscuring object is located within a

distance not shorter than the height of obscuring - for

obscuring objects of a height up to 35 m and 35 m for

obscuring objects higher than 35 m.

In the first stage, places where buildings were

demolished in specified areas may be detected using

multisource data. These indicated areas can be the

locations of new investments. The raster in Fig. 11a

indicates areas in which a building was demolished

during the time period 1990-2013. It was created by

reclassifying differential DSM. With regard to the

accuracy of the generated archival model, it was

assumed that only values > 5m of differential DSM

correspond to real land cover changes.

In the next step, visibility analysis may be

performed for places in which new buildings are to be

constructed based on DSM created from LiDAR point

cloud (Fig 11b).

2.3.4 Analysis of Types and Conditions of

Development

The conditions of the existing development were

analysed for the selected test site. Using multisource

data, i.e. true-orthophotomaps/orthophotomaps and

aerial laser scanning, the heights of buildings and

standards of development may be differentiated.

The analysis indicates that degraded, post-

industrial objects exist in fragments of the test site and

modern, exclusive housing districts have arisen

beside them (Fig. 12).

Figure 11: a) Reclassified differential DSM (2013-1990)

and b) Visibility map for the planned building.

Figure 12: An example of degraded, post-industrial areas

and newly constructed apartment houses. The degraded

industrial area is marked in red while the post-industrial

area with residential functions is marked in blue.

2.3.5 Identification of Soil Pollution

Polish legislation has undergone considerable

modifications due to the necessity of adapting it to EU

requirements. Among other things, these

modifications have concerned issues related to the

pollution of post-industrial areas. An important step

in this field was the publication of the Ordnance of

the Minister of the Environment of September 1, 2016

on the register of historical pollution of the Earth's

surface (Dz.U. 2016 item 1397), which, among other

things, obligates that maps of historically polluted

areas are produced.

Based on the geo-chemical atlas of Warsaw,

places of increased intensity of harmful substances in

soils were identified (the surface layer of soils, 0.0 –

0.3 m) (Fig. 13).

Soils with alkaline pH dominate within the area.

In the south-western part of the district, in previous

railway areas, close to the concentration of objects of

industrial functions, the increased concentration of

arsenic, barium, chromium, copper and mineral oils,

and in the central part of the district, the concentration

GISTAM 2018 - 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management

228

of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), zinc and

mercury was identified.

Due to the lack of commonly accessible information

concerning locations of post-industrial areas and

possible, developers sometimes locate housing or

trade-and-service investments in attractive areas

where industrial plants existed in the past. Such areas

are not always analysed with respect to the intensity

of concentration of harmful substances and, as a

result, they are not the subject of re-cultivation.

Inhabitants, afraid of their health, and willing to act

against such conditions, create maps of pollutions of

their own. Such a map was created in the Wola district

when problems concerning several investments

occurred (among others, in Skierniewicka Street and

Obozowa Street). Inhabitants of this district

developed a map of locations of where industrial

plants were located in the past. Despite the lack of

professional aid in the cartographic development of

that map, as well as serious methodological failures,

that map should be considered as a valuable example

of social activity in the field of ecological knowledge

and the analysis of hazards for human health, which

are important in the process of revitalisation.

The analysis of the changes in development

performed based on multitemporal data in the context

of the location of industrial plants may support the

development of such maps, in particular, in the field

of identification of lands polluted in the past (Fig. 14).

3 DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSIONS

In many cases, archival photographs may be the best

source of historical information about urban areas.

A block of scanned aerial photographs can be

easily processed into geo-referenced products such as

orthomosaics, point clouds or digital surface models.

Figure 13: Map of possible areas of historical pollution of

soils. The indicated area is analysed in the next figure.

These archival products are valuable resources for

planning activities including landscape and land use

analysis or assessment of environmental impacts.

An important advantage of using

photogrammetric data in combination with GIS

processing for spatial planning purposes is the

possibility of achieving readable visualizations of

spatial phenomena and changes which occur in

specified areas. DSM indicates the height of

individual projects that can be directly used for height

analysis. Multitemporal photogrammetric

documentation allows us to comprehensively

evaluate the tested area in terms of future

development and corrections of existing spatial

development plans.

The accuracy of 3D reconstruction from archival

photogrammetric data is limited by the quality of the

scanned photographs available. Using Structure from

Motion software to processing this kind of data is

connected to the high unpredictability of the obtained

results. Therefore, the results of spatial analysis with

the use of archival geo-referenced DSM models or

ortophotomaps should be always verified by a spatial

planner.

Figure 14: An example of fragments of archival (A, B) and current (C) orthophotomaps in which industrial objects were

located and where the analysis of the increased intensity of harmful substances may be performed.

An Example of Multitemporal Photogrammetric Documentation and Spatial Analysis in Process Revitalisation and Urban Planning

229

This paper presents the possibilities of the

integration of photogrammetric data for the needs of

spatial management, in particular for the needs of

supporting revitalisation processes. Applying the

appropriate data orientation and its recording in the

database makes is possible to visualise and to perform

spatial analysis with consideration of the third

dimension. The use of high resolution photogram-

metric data and the functionality of Geographic

Information Systems (GIS) may simplify the

effective management of urban spaces. The spatial

analyses performed, based on, among others,

photogrammetric data, are undoubtedly useful tool

for forecasting and optimisation.

REFERENCES

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP),

“Northeastern Illinois Air Photo Archive and

Webmap”, 2017, http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/data/

land-use/air-photo-archive

El-Hakim, S., Lapointe, J.-F., Whiting, E., 2008: Digital

reconstruction and 4D presentation through time. Proc.

SIGGRAPH.

Goncalves, J. A., 2016. Automatic orientation and

mosaicking of archived aerial photography using

Structure from Motion. International Archives of the

Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial

Information Sciences, Lausanne, Switzerland, Volume

XL-3/W4, the European Calibration and Orientation

Workshop, pp. 123-126.

Moussa, W., 2014: Integration of Digital Photogrammetry

and Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Cultural Heritage

Data Recording. Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der

Wissenschaften in Kommission beim Verlag C.H.

Beck, Muchen, Germany.

Nocerino, E., Menna, F., Remondino, F., 2012: Multi-

temporal analysis of landscapes and urban areas. Int.

Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and

Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. 39(4), pp. 85-90.

Ogryzek, M., Rząsa, K.: The Use of Multi-Criteria GIS

Analysis in the Revitalisation of Space, 2017 Baltic

Geodetic Congress (BGC Geomatics).

Patias, P., Kaimaris, D., Stylianidis, E., 2011: Change

detection in historical city centers using multi -source

data: the case of historical center of Nicosia – Cyprus.

Proc. 23 rd Int. CIPA Conference, Prague, Czech

Republic.

Ratcliffe, I. C., G. M. Henebry, 2004: Using declassified

intelligence satellite photographs with Quickbird

imagery to study urban land cover dynamics: a case

study from Kazakhstan. Annual Proceedings ASPRS,

Denver CO., paper 198: 1 -10.

Redecker, A. P., 2008: Historical aerial photographs and

digital photogrammetry for impact analyses on derelict

land sites in human settlement areas. Int. Archives of

Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial

Information Sciences, Vol 37(B8), pp. 5- 10.

Salach, A.: SAPC – Application for Adapting Scanned

Analogue Photographs to Use Them in Structure from

Motion Technology, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote

Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-1/W1, 197-204,

https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-1-W1-

197-2017, 2017.

Schindler, G., 2010: Unlocking the urban photographic

record through 4D scene modelling. PhD thesis,

Georgia Tech. Univ.

Stefani, C., Busayarat, C., Renaudin, N., De Luca, L.,

Véron, P., Florenzano, M., 2011: An image -based

approach for the architectural modeling of past states.

IAPRS&SIS, Vol 38(5/W16).

Vizzari, L., 2011: Spatio-temporal analysis using urban-

rural gradient modelling. Proc. ICCSA 2011, Murgante

et al. (Eds.), LNCS 6782, Part I, pp. 103-118.

Zawieska, D., Markiewicz, J. S., Kopiasz, J., Tazbir, J., and

Tobiasz, A.: 3D Modelling of the Lusatian Borough in

Biskupin Using Archival Data, Int. Arch. Photogramm.

Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2/W3, 665-669,

https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W3-

665-2017, 2017.

GISTAM 2018 - 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management

230