Global and Continental Urban Extent / Settlement Layers: Summary Characteristics
|
Dataset |
Source |
Concept |
Method |
Imagery Used |
Spatial Resolution |
Year(s) Represented |
Distribution Policy |
|
Global Human Built-up And Settlement Extent (HBASE) Dataset From Landsat, v1 |
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (distributed via NASA SEDAC) |
Extent of settlements |
Integrates spatial texture and contextual information to map the spatial extent of an urban area (i.e. HBASE) using Landsat imagery, which is then used as an input to impervious surface mapping (GMIS below). Details. |
Landsat |
30 meter, 250 meter, and 1 km |
2010 |
Open access |
|
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) |
Presence of buildings |
Landsat imagery are used to estimate the proportion of building footprint and impervious surfaces within each grid cell. Details. |
Landsat |
38 m |
1975, 1990, 2000, 2014 |
Open access |
|
|
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) |
Multiple classes of settlement based on combination of population density, population size, and density of built-up areas |
Uses GHS-BUILT built up density and GHS-POP population grid as inputs to create classes (urban center, urban cluster, and rural) derived from combinations of population density, size, and density of built-up. Details. |
Landsat |
1 km |
1975, 1990, 2000, 2015 |
Open access |
|
|
Global Man-made Impervious Surface (GMIS) Dataset From Landsat, v1 |
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (distributed via NASA SEDAC) |
Percent impervious surface per grid cell |
High resolution satellite imagery are used to calculate the percent man-made impervious surface for each 30m Landsat pixel, masking out non-urban areas using HBASE (above). Details. |
Landsat |
30 meter, 250 meter, and 1 km |
2010 |
Open access |
|
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - Columbia University, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) |
Broader footprints of human settlements |
Thresholded DMSP-OLS nighttime lights plus buffered settlement points. Details. |
Defense Meteorological Program Optical Line Scan (DMSP-OLS) nighttime lights |
15 km |
Circa 1995 |
Open access |
|
|
Global Rural Urban Mapping Project: Urban Extent Polygons, v1.01 |
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - Columbia University, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) |
Broader footprints of human settlements |
Thresholded DMSP-OLS nighttime lights plus buffered settlement points. The gridded data set was converted to polygons and settlement names were associated with each polygon. Details. |
Defense Meteorological Program Optical Line Scan (DMSP-OLS) nighttime lights |
15 km |
Circa 1995 |
Open access |
|
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Earth Observation Center (EOC) |
Very high resolution built up areas |
A total of 180,000 TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar scenes were processed to create the GUF. Details. |
TanDEM-X |
12 meter |
2011 / 2012 |
Commercial / Free for research use |