Outlining where humans live, the World Settlement Footprint 2015

Area of Science:

• Earth Observation
• Geographic Information Science
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Human settlements are key drivers of global environmental and societal change.
• Accurate mapping of settlement location and extent is crucial but remains challenging.
• Existing global settlement datasets lack sufficient detail, especially for rural and suburban areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a high-resolution global map of human settlements for the year 2015.
• To improve the detection and delineation of settlements, particularly small and scattered ones.
• To provide a foundational dataset for various applications requiring accurate human presence information.

Main Methods:

• Development of an advanced classification system utilizing both optical and radar satellite imagery.
• Generation of the World Settlement Footprint 2015 (WSF2015) dataset at 10m resolution.
• Validation using crowdsourced photointerpretation of 900,000 samples from very high-resolution imagery.

Main Results:

• The WSF2015 dataset provides a global view of human settlements at 10m resolution.
• The new map significantly outperforms existing settlement layers in accuracy and detail.
• Improved detection of small rural settlements and better delineation of suburban areas were achieved.

Conclusions:

• The WSF2015 offers a significant advancement in global human settlement mapping.
• The dataset's high resolution and accuracy support diverse applications, from socioeconomic analysis to risk assessment.
• This resource enhances our understanding of the human footprint on Earth.