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, Michele Melchiorri and Thomas Kemper
Additional contact information
Daniele Ehrlich: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Via Enrico Fermi, 20127 Ispra, Italy
Sergio Freire: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Via Enrico Fermi, 20127 Ispra, Italy
Michele Melchiorri: Engineering S.p.A., Piazzale dell’Agricoltura 24, 00144 Roma, Italy
Thomas Kemper: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Via Enrico Fermi, 20127 Ispra, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-24

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.

Keywords: anthropogenic impacts; hazard risk and impact; international frameworks; city size; GHS-BUILT; GHS-POP; GHS-SMOD; urban; rural; cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7851-:d:593867

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