THE GLOBAL HUMAN SETTLEMENT LAYER (GHSL): BASIC FACTS & GEO WG

GEO WORK PLAN SYMPOSIUM 20155-7 May 2015, WMO Building, Salle Obasi7bis avenue de la Paix, Geneva, Switzerland

Martino Pesaresi, European Commission, Joint Research Center

1975 ---------------1990----------2000--------------2014

Landsat GHSL: first available global dynamical assessment

Open public data + new processing methods

= new global information

Global population and built-up areas evolution in the last 40 years. The fine-scale built-up areas are estimated by the JRC GHSL using Landsat input imagery

Population estimates are extracted from the World Bank data

Global Human Settlement WG

• Established in October 2014 – supporting SB-04 “Global Urban Observation and Information”. http://www.earthobservations.org/ghs.php

• To develop a new generation of measurements and information products assessing new scientific evidences about global human settlement

• To support global policy processes with agreed, actionable and goal-driven metrics– the UN Third Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban

Development (Habitat III, 2016) – the concurrent post-2015 processes on sustainable development, – the UN Framework Convention on Climate change – the Hyogo framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

GHS WG status (6 months life time)

• ~40 research teams registered alpha tester, >150 individual researchers

• Governmental, int. org., NGO, academic, private firms• Applications (so far): • damage and reconstruction assessment, impact assessment,

disaster early warning and alerting, losses estimates, exposure and risk mapping and post-disaster need assessment (PDNA)

• population spatial modeling, census planning, regional development and planning, transport planning, urban and global climate modeling, spatial epidemics analysis, ecological studies, environmental protection, agricultural fragmentation studies, and historical landscape protection

Nightlights & GHSL, globe (2012)

GPWv3 2.5’ population count grid 2000 (CIESIN)

GHSL for population grids

GHSL-enhanced population grid for Syria, in 2000, at 18’’ (600m) 2000

GHS WG next steps

• Oct 2016 (off. release Habitat III)– 30-m-res Landsat GHSL 1975-1990-2000-2014– 250-m-res multi-temporal population grids

(CIESIN)– SDG indicators package

• Nov 2017– 10-m-res Sentinel GHSL 2015+ annual update– Updated SDG indicators monitoring package

• Dec 2018– Operational requirements new Copernicus service

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