UAVs to detect unlicensed constructions

ISTANBUL

In a bid to combat uncontrolled and unregulated urbanization, which poses a significant threat for a possible earthquake, UAVs will now be utilized to detect illegal structures.

In the book “Eighth Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems Symposium Proceedings” published by the Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Ministry, it was pointed out that the detection of illegal constructions via street-by-street inspections is an inconvenient and time-consuming method.

The ministry stated that to overcome this problem, UAVs will be deployed to capture detailed images of all structures in the inspected area from the air.

By comparing the official cadastral records of buildings and their floor numbers with the images obtained from UAVs, illegal constructions and floors will be identified, the ministry’s book stated.

Within the scope of the study, the ministry selected Istanbul as the pilot region, emphasizing the urgent need to accelerate urban transformation in the city due to the potential severe destruction in case of a possible earthquake.

UAV flights were conducted over the area, and building images were collected. To detect unauthorized floors, the number of windows in the building images were compared with the figure in the municipal data.

The ministry stated that the implementation in the pilot region achieved a success rate of 90.7 percent.

According to the ministry’s book, a study conducted in 1998, focusing on metropolitan cities such as Istanbul, the western province of İzmir and the capital Ankara, revealed that the city population increased by one person every minute, resulting in an increase of 100,000 annually, and with migrations, this number reached 500,000.

It was emphasized that to provide adequate housing in line with this increase, approximately 125,000 new houses are needed each year, and this need is met with the construction of around 220 illegal housing units in Istanbul every day.