Open and Consistent Geospatial Data on Population Density, Built-Up and Settlements to Analyse Human Presence, Societal Impact and Sustainability: A Review of GHSL Applications

Daniele Ehrlich,Sergio Freire,Thomas Kemper,Michele Melchiorri

doi:10.3390/su13147851

Daniele Ehrlich, Sergio Freire + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147851

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Abstract

This review analyses peer-reviewed scientific publications and policy documents that use built-up density, population density and settlement typology spatial grids from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project to quantify human presence and processes for sustainability. Such open and free grids provide detailed time series spanning 1975–2015 developed with consistent approaches. Improving our knowledge of cities and settlements by measuring their size extent, as well as the societal processes occurring within settlements, is key to understanding their impact on the local, regional and global environment for addressing global sustainability and the integrity of planet Earth. The reviewed papers are grouped around five main topics: Quantifying human presence; assessing settlement growth over time; estimating societal impact, assessing natural hazard risk and impact, and generating indicators for international framework agreements and policy documents. This review calls for continuing to refine and expand the work on societal variables that, when combined with essential variables including those for climate, biodiversity and ocean, can improve our understanding of the societal impact on the biosphere and help to monitor progress towards local, regional and planetary sustainability.

Highlights

Planetary sustainability in the Anthropocene [1]—an epoch of increasing societal resource use—is a global concern [2]
The results are presented based on five thematic groupings for a total of thirteen thematic areas against the structure of Figure 1
The indicators thematic grouping addresses the generation of indicators for the post-2015 International Framework Agreements, as well as policy documents that use indicators aggregated across larger spatial units for policy analysis (Table 6)

Summary

Introduction

Planetary sustainability in the Anthropocene [1]—an epoch of increasing societal resource use—is a global concern [2]. Measuring the size and shape of cities and settlements resulting from urbanisation [6,7,8,9]—made possible through the analysis of satellite image archives [10]—and the human activities occurring within them—as referenced in this review—is a precondition to understanding societal processes [11], their impact on planet Earth at a local, regional and global scale. Cities and settlements are at the centre of the sustainability debate, and their consumption patterns define the societal demand for resources. The cumulative throughput of energy and materials will need to be aggregated in national, regional and global scale assessments to estimate the overall trajectory of the Anthropocene [39]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion