Using Google Earth historic imagery

Question

Hey,

I'm trying to use google earth pro's historic imagery option which shows layers from different dates, to analyze changes in infrastructure - in particular, new buildings in different villages, by comparing current and old satellite imagery. For now I am doing this manually, but I'm sure there's a better way. I have two issues:

1. Can one import google earth imagery into ArcGIS pro?

2. Once imported, is there a smart way to count the number of buildings in a town / village?

Thank you oh mighty Esri community!

ChrisDonohue__GISP · Answer

The folks on here who do Remote Sensing work can probably chime in with specifics, but yes there are imagery resources out there that one can download for use in change detection.  The first one that comes to mind for me is Landsat, but there are many others.  One key limiting factor, though, will be which part of the world you are interested in and for what time intervals.  The further back in time one goes the less data is available.  Also, obviously you will need to evaluate each imagery platform available to see if the sensor data you can get matches what you intend to do.  For example, does the sensor have enough resolution and does it capture the part of the spectrum you need.

Landsat Data Access | Landsat Missions

Tagging:  Imagery and Remote Sensing

Chris Donohue, GISP

ArielPaz_Sawicki · Answer

Maybe I'll try and refine my question: except for the world_imagery basemap, what other high-resolution satellite imagery layers are available? Is it possible to upload older versions of world_imagery, so I can quickly compare areas between the older and newer imagery?

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

since you mentioned 'easily'.... no to both counts, especially the 2nd since that would entail image classification etc.

You would be far better off saving the locations as a kml file for your building placements and comparing them to a new vector file which you might be able to get from open sources or a municipality if they have online gis data