Multi-source urban evidence systems for verifiable municipal and urban workflows.
Research Question
How can multi-source spatial evidence, temporal change, public records and derived intelligence support verifiable municipal and urban workflows without replacing statutory decision-making?
Problem
Municipal governance requires reliable evidence about the physical environment: what buildings exist, how areas have changed, what infrastructure serves which populations, and where development is occurring. This evidence is typically fragmented across survey records, satellite imagery, census data, tax rolls and field observations.
The gap between available spatial evidence and actionable municipal intelligence creates delays in assessment, planning and service delivery. Reconciling multiple building-data sources, detecting temporal change, and providing structured evidence for officer decision-making are research challenges at the intersection of spatial intelligence and public governance.
Why It Matters
- Property tax assessment and revenue improvement
- Urban growth monitoring and planning compliance
- Infrastructure planning and service coverage
- Unauthorized construction identification
- Census and population distribution intelligence
- Disaster exposure and vulnerability mapping
- 3D urban visualization for planning review
Current Approach
The research combines multiple spatial evidence sources into reconciliation and intelligence workflows:
- Multi-source building conflation — Comparing footprints from OpenStreetMap, Microsoft Buildings, Google Open Buildings and authoritative sources
- Temporal change detection — Using multi-date satellite imagery to identify construction, demolition and modification
- Demographic overlay — Census and population data providing context for spatial evidence
- 3D urban reconstruction — Browser-based 3D city visualization from open data
- Reconciliation workflow — Generating prioritized candidate lists for officer verification
Important: AI/GIS evidence produces reconciliation candidates. Final assessment decisions remain with authorized municipal officers through statutory processes.
Limitations
- Building reconciliation requires field verification by authorized officers
- Does not replace statutory decision-making processes
- Temporal imagery availability varies by region
- Census data may not reflect current populations
- 3D models are approximations from available open data