What is the impact of urbanization on lightning data collection accuracy?

[oppedahl]

Thanks, Oppedahl, that clears things up a lot. Sounds like RFI is really the main issue in cities, not the tall buildings themselves. Good to know it’s still possible to get decent results if the setup is done right.

No, it is not really right to say RFI is the main issue in cities.  

Look back to the subject line that you selected for this thread.  You asked:

What is the impact of urbanization on lightning data collection accuracy?

And the answer to your question is pretty much "none".  No matter how much more urbanization takes place, no matter how many more tall buildings get built, the accuracy of the lightning data collection in the Blitzortung community will likely remain about the same.

If we are going to try to pick something and say that it is "the main issue", we need to say "for whom?"

Suppose we are trying to figure out "what is the main issue for people would like to know where and when a lightning strike happened?"

For such people, RFI is not an issue at all.  Nor is "RFI in cities" an issue.  Nor are tall buildings an issue.  For those people the main issue is "did the Blitzortung folks devise intelligent ways to collect and analyze data to figure out where and when lightning strikes happen?"  The answer (from my perspective) is "yes".

Back to "main issue for whom?"  I suppose we could try to ask "what is the main issue for a person who is getting ready to purchase and set up a Blitzortung station?"

For that person, is "RFI the main issue in cities?"  No, not really, or at least not very much.  For that person, there are many possible ways to end up not successfully setting up the new station.  Yes RFI might make it difficult for that person to succeed, but RFI issues can happen in a rural area just as much as in a city.  

A main issue might be "is my home surrounded by a large number of nearby existing high-functioning Blitzortung stations?"  In which case maybe adding one more station at that location might not make an enormous difference to the shared goals of the public or the shared goals of the Blitzortung community.  

For the person who is getting ready to purchase and set up a Blitzortung station, if "RFI in cities" is not the main issue (and I suggest it is not), then what is?  A main issue for that person might be "do I have experience with RF engineering that is likely to help me figure out how to deal with the many things that might go wrong, of which RFI is only one?"  But again this is not really an "in cities" issue.