New Global Human Settlement Layer data release

Planning urban areas using the best data available

Today and over the coming decades, social, economic and environmental pressures will make urbanised areas face multiple challenges. Hence, having accurate data on human settlements to support urban decision-making and help plan more resilient cities is of the utmost importance.

Thanks to the JRC’s updated version of its global human settlement layer (GHSL), anticipating the future of urban areas and protecting human settlements is now easier. 

GHSL 2.0 combines Earth Observation (EO) data from historical satellite images and open source-data such as population census. The result is a framework of georeferenced (map) layers and tools providing historical and real-time information on global human settlements. 

A finer resolution detail and more data accuracy

Thanks to a spatial resolution grid nine times denser (compared to the previous version), GHSL 2.0 brings greater accuracy in locating and characterising the human population and its settlements worldwide. As a result, the potential to support data-driven urban management is enormous.

This improved spatial resolution that is constantly updated is only possible thanks to the European Copernicus Sentinel satellites, together with US and Japan Earth Observation data. 

This fine grain resolution allowed the creation of the first functional classification of the built environment. It enables distinguishing different surfaces — from residential to industrial and commercial areas — and getting building height information.

Supporting policy decisions with accurate data

Several applications related to knowing where and how people live would benefit from using GHSL 2.0. For instance, if used to anticipate emergencies, the GHSL can estimate the number of people at risk of suffering from the effects of a heatwave, a flood or an earthquake, forecasting casualties or economic damage.

As such, GHSL can greatly support urban planning and management. For instance, it can contribute to the vision that urbanisation can be a powerful tool for sustainable development - an ambition of the New Urban Agenda that the EU and its Member States support.

This open and free data can also be used to support the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, to calculate several indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals or the Paris agreement on climate change. Moreover, GHSL can help assess the level of urbanisation for all countries worldwide via the Degree of Urbanisation method.
 

Link: Find out more about the new GHSL database on its dedicated website.