Satellite images are only as good as their resolution. The smaller the pixel size, the sharper the image. High-resolution satellite imagery tracks the changing human footprint across the globe, including rapidly growing cities, urban sprawl, and informal settlements. It also serves the basis for a global effort to map the world’s communities, such as OpenStreetMap, a platform where the imagery is used to digitize maps.

It offers the highest detail and accuracy sold on a per km2 basis, where an area of interest is clipped out of one or more scenes (stripes).

Urban planning covers both the development of open land sites and the renovation of developed parts of the city, in particular, data collection and analysis, prediction, design, strategic planning, economic models and social research. Increasingly, the GIS technology has been applied to map the urban system and to project the consequences of changes.