The pilot-study ERSCLiP (PP2 - D21) was launched in 1993 to test the potentials of satellite data from ERS-1 in combination with Landsat-TM and a digital terrain model for urban planing and urban climatology. On the ERS-1 workshop at London 1995 it was shown how radiation fluxes (all-wave net radiation, longwave emission, shortwave reflexion and albedo) and other important micrometeorological properties like aerodynamic surface roughness (z₀) can be extracted from satellite data. Within the project KABA (Climate Analysis of the Basle Region) climate maps for urban and regional planning are worked out. This project is carried out in close cooperation with the local planning authorities. The most important input data was a landuse classification from the ERS-1 pilot study ERSCLiP. The pixel-based classification, were multi-temporal ERS-1 data were merged with on Landsat-TM scene, was aggregated to so-called „areal types" by using a rule-based algorithm which regards the information of neighbouring pixels in a very sophisticated way. The final products of the KABA project are climate maps for the local planning authorities in scales of 1 : 25.000 to 1 : 100.000. These maps will be the climatological basis for urban and regional planning for the next 10 to 20 years in the urban agglomeration of Basle with more than 600.000 inhabitants living in the triangle between Switzerland, France and Germany. The maps show the climatological information across national borders.

The advantages for this satellite and GIS-based study are:

• the methods can be transferred to any other region
• potential planning scenarios can be simulated with respect to their consequences for urban climate and consequently people's well-being.

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry