UBDC provides access to datasets on the physical environment of cities.

The LIDAR raw and derived datasets - Bluesky; Scottish Remote Sensing Portal; and English LIDAR data from the Environment Agency, including LIDAR raw point clouds, digital surface model (DSM), digital elevation model (DEM), and the openly available 3D building models. And coming soon this year, we plan to release the updated 3D building and tree models for Glasgow - provide detailed descriptions of physical built-up urban areas.

The 3D city models can be applied to flooding simulation, urban housing planning application, and solar energy analysis.

The high-resolution nightlight remotely sensed imagery (JL1-3) offers enhanced insights of urban infrastructure and human activities at night from space at a very fine spatial scale. The night light imagery provides further applications in light source identification, light pollution, and socioeconomic research.

Beyond space, UBDC also provides the accessing subsurface knowledge dataset from the British Geological survey to represent the land and soil conditions in Glasgow. Other urban environmental indicators such as outdoor air quality and weather conditions can be found at UBDC Met Office data and Defra AURN data.

External remote sensing image sources can be accessed through different data services. For example, EDINA’s Digimap service provides access to National tree maps, aerial images, and UK Land cover maps under licence for academic use, and the USGS EarthExplorer provides a wide range of freely available satellite images globally.