Research by airplane: 3D thermal images to advance climate protection in Dortmund
A propeller plane will be flying over the entire city of Dortmund in the coming February nights. The sightseeing flight will produce thermal images to identify potential for renovation.
The overflight is part of the CATCH4D (Climate Adaptation through Thermographic Campaign and Heatmapping) research project. The Dortmund Institute for Regional and Urban Development Research (ILS Research) is carrying out the project in collaboration with the city of Dortmund. On selected, cloud-free nights, a propeller aircraft will take three-dimensional thermal images (thermographic images) of the entire Dortmund building stock in order to identify weak points in the building insulation and acute renovation needs that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The exact dates depend on the current weather conditions and are only fixed at very short notice.
Integration with the city of Dortmund’s 3D building model
Other cities have already had good experiences with thermographic flights of this kind in the recent past, but the Dortmund project goes a decisive step further. “We will then process the results of the thermographic flights and link them to an existing 3D building model of the city of Dortmund,” explains Dr. Bastian Heider from the ILS project team. The 3D thermal image model will then be made available to interested property owners exclusively for their respective property. This will allow them to see for themselves how energy-efficient their building is.
“We are very excited to see how the thermal insulation of buildings in our city is actually doing, where there is a concrete need for renovation and where it is greatest. There is still great potential to save CO2, because where less heat escapes, less heating is needed,” says Theresa Eckermann, Head of Climate, Air and Noise at the Environmental Agency.
The project takes data protection very seriously. Only the roofs and facades of the buildings will be recorded during the planned thermographic aerial survey. Vehicles and people cannot be recognized due to the low resolution of the images. The data obtained will be used exclusively for the development of climate protection measures and will not be passed on to third parties. Property owners also have the option of objecting to the use of data on their properties by email (catch4d@ils-forschung.de). This data will then be deleted immediately.
The background
The CATCH4D project, led by Dr. Shaojuan Xu and Dr. Bastian Heider, is funded by Google.org, the non-profit arm of Google, with almost 1 million euros as part of the ICLEI Action Fund 2.0 competition. ILS Research is cooperating on the project with the Environmental Agency of the City of Dortmund, Coordination Office for Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation.
