Skip navigation

GUF® - Global Urban Footprint® v1

All Themes
Anthrophosphere

DLR
EOC
Land Cover
Land
Urbanization
Global Mapping
Settlement Patterns
TerraSAR-X
TanDEM-X
Texture
GUF
Global Urban Footprint

The Global Urban Footprint® (GUF®) dataset is based on the radar (SAR) satellite imagery of the German satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. By creating the GUF database, scientists at the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have succeeded in using a newly developed method to generate a global raster map of the world’s built-up pattern in a so far unprecedented spatial resolution of about 12m per raster cell.

Using a fully automated processing system, a global coverage of more than 180,000 very high resolution SAR images (3m ground resolution) has been analyzed acquired between 2010 and 2013. Thereby, the backscatter amplitudes of the SAR data have been used in combination with derived textural information to delineate human settlements in a highly automated, complex decision-making process. The evaluation procedure based mainly on radar signals detects the characteristic vertical structures of human habitations – primarily built-up areas. In addition, auxiliary data such as digital elevation models have been included to improve the classification process. In total, over 20 million datasets were processed with a combined volume of about 320 terabytes. The final global maps show three coverage categories (e. g. in a B/W representation): Built-up areas (vertical structures only) in black, non-built-up surfaces in white, areas of no coverage by TSX/TDX satellites (NoData) as most parts of the oceans in grey.

The final product has been optimized for fast online access through web services by merging the 5 x 5 degree GUF tiles into a single global mosaic. Furthermore reduced resolution overviews have been generated with an interpolation algorithm, that computes the average value of all contribution pixels. The global mosaic uses PackBits compression to reduce file size.

GUF® and Global Urban Footprint® are protected as trademarks. A non-exclusive, spatially and temporally unlimited, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use GUF is granted free of charge for a) scientific purposes on the high resolution version of GUF® (0.4 arcseconds), b) non-commercial purposes on the low resolution version of the GUF® (2.8 arcseconds). This license does not grant any commercial use of GUF® or products generated or derived by GUF®.

References:

  • Esch, T., Elsayed, S., Marconcini, M., Marmanis, D., Zeidler, J., Dech, S. (2014): Dimensioning the Degree of Urbanization – A Technical Framework for the Large-scale Characterization of Human Settlement Forms and Patterns based on Spatial Network Analysis. Submitted to Journal of Applied Geography.
  • Esch, T., Marconcini, M., Felbier, A., Roth, A., Heldens, W., Huber, M., Schwinger, M., Taubenböck, H., Müller, A., Dech, S. (2013): Urban Footprint Processor – Fully Automated Processing Chain Generating Settlement Masks from Global Data of the TanDEM-X Mission. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 1617-1621. DOI: 10.1109/LGRS.2013.2272953
  • Esch, T., Taubenböck, H., Roth, A., Heldens, W., Felbier, A., Thiel, M., Schmidt, M., Müller, A., Dech, S. (2012): TanDEM-X Mission - New Perspectives for the Inventory and Monitoring of Global Settlement Patterns. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol. 6, No. 1, 061702 (October 04, 2012); 21 pp. DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.6.061702
  • Esch, T., Schenk, A., Ullmann, T., Thiel, M., Roth, A. and S. Dech (2011): Characterization of Land Cover Types in TerraSAR-X Images by Combined Analysis of Speckle Statistics and Intensity Information. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Vol. 49, No.6, pp 1911 – 1925. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2010.2091644
  • Esch, T., Thiel, M., Schenk, A., Roth, A., Muller, A. and Dech, S. (2010): Delineation of Urban Footprints From TerraSAR-X Data by Analyzing Speckle Characteristics and Intensity Information. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 905-916. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2009.2037144

Contacts:

  • WSF Team (Producer, Processor) DLR/EOC Land Surface Dynamics

Properties:

Links:

Items:

GUF04_DLR_v1_Mosaic (for scientific use only)

This layer represents the Global Urban Footprint® (GUF®) in it's 0.4 arcsecond / ~ 12m resolution version optimized for web service access. The datasets shows two land cover categories: Built-up areas (vertical structures only) are represented with value 255 and non-build-up surfaces with value 0. Areas of no coverage by the satellites are coded as value 128. For small-scale visualisation, reduced resolution overviews have been generated with an interpolation algorithm, that computes the average value of all contribution pixels. See the link to the metadata for more information.

Title: EOC Land Map Service
Endpoint: https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms
Layer: GUF04_DLR_v1_Mosaic
Capabilities: GetCapabilities (XML)
Preview: GetMap (Openlayers)

GUF28_DLR_v1_Mosaic (for non-commercial use only)

This layer represents the Global Urban Footprint® (GUF®) in it's 2.8 arcsecond / ~ 84m resolution version optimized for web service access. The datasets shows two land cover categories: Built-up areas (vertical structures only) are represented with value 255 and non-build-up surfaces with value 0. Areas of no coverage by the satellites are coded as value 128. For small-scale visualisation, reduced resolution overviews have been generated with an interpolation algorithm, that computes the average value of all contribution pixels. See the link to the metadata for more information.

Title: EOC Land Map Service
Endpoint: https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms
Layer: GUF28_DLR_v1_Mosaic
Capabilities: GetCapabilities (XML)
Preview: GetMap (Openlayers)

Related Datasets:

World Settlement Footprint (WSF®) 2015

2021-04-01

World Settlement Footprint (WSF®) 2019

2021-11-01

World Settlement Footprint (WSF®) Evolution

2021-11-01

World Settlement Footprint (WSF®) 3D

2023-02-15