Global Distribution and Density of Constructed Impervious Surfaces

Sensors

Christopher D. Elvidge²  Benjamin T. Tuttle⁴  Paul S. Sutton⁵  Kimberly E. Baugh⁴  Ara T. Howard⁴  Cristina Milesi¹  Budhendra L. Bhaduri³ 

[1] Foundation of California State University, Monterey Bay, California. USA. E-mail:;Earth Observation Group, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA. E-mail:;U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee USA. E-mail:;Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA. E-mail:;Department of Geography, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA.

关键词: Impervious surfaces;    constructed area;    urbanization;    nighttime lights;    population grid;    ISA;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s7091962

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We present the first global inventory of the spatial distribution and density of constructed impervious surface area (ISA). Examples of ISA include roads, parking lots, buildings, driveways, sidewalks and other manmade surfaces. While high spatial resolution is required to observe these features, the new product reports the estimated density of ISA on a one-km² grid based on two coarse resolution indicators of ISA – the brightness of satellite observed nighttime lights and population count. The model was calibrated using 30-meter resolution ISA of the USA from the U.S. Geological Survey. Nominally the product is for the years 2000-01 since both the nighttime lights and reference data are from those two years. We found that 1.05% of the United States land area is impervious surface (83,337 km²) and 0.43 % of the world's land surface (579,703 km²) is constructed impervious surface. China has more ISA than any other country (87,182 km2), but has only 67 m² of ISA per person, compared to 297 m² per person in the USA. The distribution of ISA in the world's primary drainage basins indicates that watersheds damaged by ISA are primarily concentrated in the USA, Europe, Japan, China and India. The authors believe the next step for improving the product is to include reference ISA data from many more areas around the world.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
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