As a geographer working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I am particularly interested in exploring urban delineation methods that move beyond the constraints of administrative boundaries. Instead of relying on official municipal limits—which can often be outdated or misaligned with functional realities on the ground—I focus on delineating urban areas based on physical indicators such as built-up surface, population density, and spatial continuity. This approach allows for a more accurate and dynamic understanding of urban space.
Tag Archives: sig
Urban Heat Islands, Trees, and Climate Justice in the Anthropocene: A Remote Sensing-Based Reflection
In recent years, the need to understand the urban environment has grown more urgent than ever. Climate change is not an abstract future scenario; it is already here, reshaping our cities day by day. Among the many phenomena that demand our attention, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect stands out—not only for its environmental and public health impacts but also for its socio-political implications. Through satellite imagery and remote sensing, we can now visualize and quantify these dynamics with increasing precision. This post reflects on such an analysis I conducted using LANDSAT 8 imagery (Scene ID: LC08_L2SP_201032_20250328_20250401_02_T1, Date Acquired: 2025/03/28), and discusses the findings in the broader context of urban planning, climate justice, and the urgent need to protect urban vegetation.
Mapping My 10-Year Adventure: Running Madrid to Ulaanbaatar 10,127 km
In August 2014, I laced up my running shoes for the first time, with no grand expectations — just a simple desire to move, to feel better, to take control. I was far from athletic: weighing nearly 80 kilograms (almost 20 kg more than today), with no endurance, no rhythm, and definitely no running background (exception made of some runs in my mid 20’s :-)). But I made myself a promise: I would be stubborn, consistent, and patient. No matter the weather — rain, wind, snow, scorching heat, storms — I would run, three times a week, every week.
GEOGRAFÍA EN EL COLEGIO!
Ayer tuve el honor de compartir una hora y media con la clase de 2ºA de primaria del Colegio Ermita del Santo en Madrid, hablando sobre Geografía desde muchos puntos de vista. Desde las proyecciones cartográficas hasta Google Earth, pasando por un proyecto cartográfico real y reciente, y terminando con la relación entre la Geografía y la Meteorología. Pero lo más especial no fueron los mapas ni las explicaciones… ¡fueron las preguntas!
LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES 2025: Sentinel 2 +Overpass Turbo (OSM)
En Los Ángeles, la combinación de condiciones meteorológicas, como los vientos secos de Santa Ana y las altas temperaturas, crea un entorno propenso a incendios forestales. Estos fuegos, a menudo cercanos a áreas urbanas, representan un gran desafío para la gestión de emergencias. Aquí es donde Sentinel-2 se convierte en una herramienta crucial. Utilizando la combinación de bandas 12, 8, 4, Sentinel-2 permite detectar rápidamente focos de calor y evaluar la extensión de las áreas quemadas, lo que es vital para coordinar respuestas eficaces. Esta capacidad de monitoreo casi en tiempo real es fundamental para mitigar el impacto de los incendios y proteger tanto a las comunidades como a los ecosistemas.
Palestine 2023-2024
The 7th of October will forever be remembered in our collective memory as a day of tragedy and senseless violence, an operation that would shatter the dream of Israel’s inviolability. The attacks by Hamas were unequivocally condemnable. The targeting of civilians (+1200 dead and +250 kidnappings) is never acceptable, and those responsible for such acts must be held accountable. However, the response that followed has escalated into something far worse, a state-driven campaign of violence by Israel that has, in just one year, claimed over 42,000 lives, a staggering number of whom are women and children. This is not defense; this is mass murder. GENOCIDE.
Wildfires in Russia through SENTINEL 2
In recent days, the Sakha region in Russia has experienced significant wildfire activity, More than 100 wildfires spanning more than 300,000 hectares are currently active. driven by a combination of extreme weather conditions and environmental factors. The fires, which have spread across vast areas of forest and tundra, have been exacerbated by unusually high temperatures and prolonged periods of drought. These conditions have led to exceptionally dry vegetation, creating an ideal fuel for the fires.
Measuring snow coverage using EOB – Earth Observation – Sentinel HUB
Playing with Sentinel 2 images I realized that the amount of snow this year has been very low compared to last winter. Here are a couple of images from January 2022 and 2023 of the Canfranc – Paticosa – Jaca area. One of the most interesting things about this EO browser is that in addition to a standard 2D visualisation, we can visualise in 3D. Here is an video example. Another interesting thing is to be able to quantify the snowfall. There is a snow classifier based on NSDI (Normalized Difference Snow Index, The Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) snow cover is an index that is related to the presence of snow in a pixel and is a more accurate description of snow detection as compared to Fractional Snow Cover (FSC).
Google Earth Engine and Dynamic World
Let me please introduce you this “new” LULC source I have come across with recently. The potential of this 10m “clutter” source is being able to acquire data from a few days ago instead of using outdated “very old” 2020 vintage datasets. I know if these days something 2020 is very old then myself, born in 1972 then i’m older than the riverside, older than peeing in a wall, even older than Methuselah. Yes, that’s the way it is nowadays.
Google Earth Engine is a geospatial processing service where you can perform geospatial processing at scale, powered by Google Cloud Platform. The purpose of Earth Engine is to:
Provide an interactive platform for geospatial algorithm development at scale
Enable high-impact, data-driven science
Make substantive progress on global challenges that involve large geospatial datasets
Measuring moisture: Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) Sentinel-2 2022
I am here in front of my desktop and I wonder how to take advantage of Sentinel Hub for tracking up moisture in a random plot anywhere in the world. Has it been irrigated at the right time for the type of crop? How has rainfall been affected over the analysis time? How has the use of certain fertilisers affected it? Has it positively affected production?. Let’s take a closer look.
Geovisualization.net 