ESTATE agents often say that a property鈥檚 value depends largely on three
characteristics: location, location and location. Until now, location has often
meant no more than a property鈥檚 postcode. But estate agents may soon be able to
describe a property鈥檚 location鈥攁s well as the level of traffic noise and
how green the neighbourhood is鈥攚ithout even visiting it.
In a pilot project, researchers from NASA鈥檚 Commercial Remote Sensing Program
(CRSP) at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi prepared a digital
image of a local development scheme covering several square kilometres. The
image was prepared from a Learjet equipped with high-resolution remote-sensing
equipment, which captured reflections from the ground across a variety of
wavelengths in the visible spectrum and beyond. By looking in the near infrared,
for example, the team was able to pick out clearly how much of the area was
shaded, while other wavelengths showed up features that might otherwise be
obscured by foliage.
The researchers worked with Jon Ritten of estate agents Coldwell Banker Delta
Realty in Diamondhead, Mississippi. Richard Campanella of Lockheed Martin, one
of the companies with a team at the space centre, says: 鈥淭he project shows what
type of information can be provided through remote sensing and how it would fit
in a special database for real estate.鈥�
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Using a software mapping system that combines the digital information with
conventional aerial photography, an estate agent can determine a property鈥檚
characteristics, such as the slope it is built on, the likelihood of flooding,
how much is covered by foliage and the distance from main roads and other
sources of noise.
Ritten combines these data with other information, such as records of where
sewerage pipes run. He says the combination allows him to 鈥渋dentify an entire
community鈥攆rom below the ground to above the ground and everything that鈥檚
on the ground or in the ground鈥�. He adds that the system would also be useful
for surveying undeveloped land. 鈥淩emote sensing will be less expensive than
going out and tramping through a wood or desert,鈥� he says.
Satellites could make similar information available over much wider areas, so
that its use by estate agents could one day become routine, say the
developers.
