OBSOLETE RELEASE
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The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project is supported by European Commission, Joint Research Center and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. The GHSL produces new global spatial information, evidence-based analytics, and knowledge describing the human presence in the planet.
The GHSL relies on the design and implementation of new spatial data mining technologies allowing to process automatically and extract analytics and knowledge from large amount of heterogeneous data including: global, fine-scale satellite image data streams, census data, and crowd sources or volunteering geographic information sources. Spatial data reporting objectively and systematically about the presence of population and built-up infrastructures are necessary for any evidence-based modelling or assessing of i) human and physical exposure to threats as environmental contamination and degradation, natural disasters and conflicts, ii) impact of human activities on ecosystems, and iii) access to resources.
This spatial raster dataset depicts the distribution and density of population, expressed as the number of people per cell. Residential population estimates for target years 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2015 provided by CIESIN GPWv4 were disaggregated from census or administrative units to grid cells, informed by the distribution and density of built-up as mapped in the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) global layer per corresponding epoch.
Center for International Earth Science Information Network Columbia University; Joint Research Centre European Commission
European Commission, Joint Research Centre; Columbia University, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (2026): GHS-POP R2015A - GHS population grid, derived from GPW4, multitemporal (1975, 1990, 2000, 2015) - OBSOLETE RELEASE. European Commission, Joint Research Centre [Dataset] doi: 10.2905/JRC.B18KT1G PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-ghsl-ghs_pop_gpw4_globe_r2015a
GHS-POPGHSLglobal mapGPWPopulation grid
GHS population grid, derived from GPW4, for 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2015. Values are expressed as decimals (Float). The data is published at medium and low resolution (250m and 1km respectively) in World Mollweide (EPSG:54009). The compressed ZIP file contain TIF files and short documentation.
Project Web site
Global population grids are increasingly used and required for countless applications in analysis, modeling, and policy-making. However, better and comparable global information requires improved geospatial data on population distribution and densities, in particular concerning temporal and spatial resolution and capacity for change assessment.
This paper presents the development of improved global multi-temporal population grids, by combining best-available population estimates for 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014, with best-available assessment of the spatial extents of human settlements as inferred from Landsat satellite data for same periods. Using a dasymetric mapping approach, population is disaggregated from finest census or administrative units to built-up areas. These 250-m grids represent population changes in time, having also higher spatial resolution than those previously available.
The novel population grids constitute currently the de facto state-of-the-art in terms of open global geospatial population data, potentially enabling advances in many of the fields where this information is relevant.
| From date | To date |
|---|---|
| 1975-01-01 | 2015-12-30 |
