Abstract
Urban areas are of paramount significance to both the individuals and communities at local and regional scales. However, the rapid growth of urban areas exerts effects on climate, biodiversity, hydrology, and natural ecosystems worldwide. Therefore, regular and up-to-date information related to urban extent is necessary to monitor the impacts of urban areas at local, regional, and potentially global scales. This study presents a new urban map of Eurasia at 500 m resolution using multi-source geospatial data, including Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data of 2013, population density of 2012, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime lights of 2012, and constructed Impervious Surface Area (ISA) data of 2010. The Eurasian urban map was created using the threshold method for these data, combined with references of fine resolution Landsat and Google Earth imagery. The resultant map was compared with nine global urban maps and was validated using random sampling method. Results of the accuracy assessment showed high overall accuracy of the new urban map of 94%. This urban map is one product of the 20 land cover classes of the next version of Global Land Cover by National Mapping Organizations.
Highlights
Urbanization processes are universal phenomena, taking place worldwide wherever humans reside
3.1.1 Visual comparison Global urban maps of the Global Land Cover by National Mapping Organizations (GLCNMO) 2003 and 2008 were produced and distributed previously by the Global Mapping Project coordinated by the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM)
The misclassified pixels of urban areas occurred in developed regions, such as Europe
Summary
Urbanization processes are universal phenomena, taking place worldwide wherever humans reside. Urban areas are among the most rapidly changing and expanding elements of the landscape (Taubenböck et al 2010). They constitute a major trend in recent years. Most of the population growth expected to occur in urban areas will be concentrated in cities and towns of less developed regions by 2050 (UN 2011). Urbanization processes have been characterized by increasingly built-up areas, and by remarkable industrial expansion, economic and social developmental activities, and rapid consumption of natural resources. Remote sensing becomes an essential field for up-to-date and area-wide data acquisition, especially in explosively sprawling cities of developing countries (Taubenböck et al 2010)
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