Urban areas are already home to 55% of the world’s population and that figure is expected to grow to 68% by 2050. Rapid and unplanned urbanisation, combined with the challenges brought by climate change, can lead to an increase in air pollution, higher vulnerability to disasters, as well as issues related to the management of resources such as water, raw materials and energy.
To improve the understanding of current trends in global urbanization, ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in collaboration with the Google Earth Engine team, are jointly developing the World Settlement Footprint – the world’s most comprehensive dataset on human settlement.
Mattia Marconcini, who manages the World Settlement Footprint from DLR, explains… “If one starts to focus on low or middle-income countries, particularly in rural and suburban areas, it is immediately clear how information on the overall extent of human settlements is not available for vast parts of the world. This is where the World Settlement Footprint comes in.”
“The World Settlement Footprint provides a knowledge base that can support researchers, governmental bodies and other stakeholders such as urban planners to better understand how urbanisation is taking place and, concurrently, put in place sustainable urban development strategies for well-informed policy decisions at local and national levels.”
