• My GeoNetwork catalogue
  •   Search
  •   Map
  •   Sign in

Degree of Urbanization - Germany, 2018

The degree of urbanization provides urbanization level information at 100x100 meter grids for Germany. It is based on population numbers, building density and the share of building types. It is provided as a continuous percentage value representing the probability of the degree of urbanization, as well as five discrete values representing classes of the degree of urbanization: definitely ‘urban’, probably ‘urban’, area of uncertainty, probably ‘rural’, definitely ‘rural’.

Simple

Date (Creation)
2026-02-02T00:00:00
Citation identifier
https://geoservice.dlr.de/catalogue/srv/metadata/240d25e4-8c5a-4a9b-852d-3d38773545a2
Presentation form
Digital map
Other citation details

DOI: 10.15489/rskmh269c925

Purpose

More differentiated statistical analysis of space – target group, e.g., State Office for the Environment (LfU), DeStatis, Federal Office for Population Research, Federal Office for Building, Urban Planning, and Regional Development (BBSR), or similar institutions as well as researchers.

Status
Completed
Author
  German Aerospace Center (DLR) -
Point of contact
  German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • Land cover

  • Buildings

Spatial scope
  • National
Keywords
  • DLR

  • EOC

  • Degree of urbanization

  • urban

  • rural

  • spatial statistics

  • building density

  • population density

  • Germany

  • opendata

Use limitation

Nutzungseinschränkungen: Das DLR ist nicht haftbar für Schäden, die sich aus der Nutzung ergeben. / Use Limitations: DLR not liable for damage resulting from use.

Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
There are no limitations on public access to spatial data sets and services.
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

Nutzungsbedingungen: Lizenz, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Terms of use: License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Other constraints

{"id": "cc-by-4.0",

"name": "Creative-Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)",

"url": " http://dcat-ap.de/def/licenses/cc-by/4.0 ",

"quelle": "Copyright DLR (2026)"}

Spatial representation type
Grid
Denominator
200000
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Society
N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Begin date
2018-01-01T00:00:00
End date
2018-12-31T23:59:59
Unique resource identifier
EPSG:3035 - ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe
Number of dimensions
2
Dimension name
Column
Dimension size
6413
Resolution
100  m
Dimension name
Row
Dimension size
8675
Resolution
100  m
Cell geometry
Area
Transformation parameter availability
No
Distribution format
  • GeoTIFF ()

OnLine resource
HTTP download Degree of Urbanization Germany ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
OnLine resource
Scientific publication ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
OnLine resource
Scientific publication ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification
INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation

See the referenced specification.

Pass
Yes
Statement

(1) Administrative municipal units of Germany (BKG) (BKG, 2020). (2) Census data on the population in 100x100-meter grid cells (DeStatis, 2020). Here, we refer to population data from 2018. These were projected based on census data from 2011 to 2018. (3) Level of detail 1 (LoD-1): Official building models with information on floor space and building height (BKG, 2021), and (4) Data on definitions of the degree of urbanization from World Urbanization Prospects (UN, 2020)

Description

Processing:The Degree of Urbanization was created based on 29 different urbanization layers, which reflect various definitions of urban space. Fifteen definitions are based on administrative interpretations of “urban space.” These definitions were applied to Germany from various countries around the world. The remaining 14 layers were generated using variable threshold values at the grid level. These define the degree of urbanization according to different thresholds (i.e. 1%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 99%) based on different variables, such as the proportion of built-up area, the number of inhabitants, or the proportion of multi-family houses. These 29 layers were superimposed and intersected with each other across the entire study area to obtain a probability of the degree of urbanization.


Quality Assurance: The input data is comprehensive, largely consistent, and, compared to data sets from other large-scale studies on the degree of urbanization, offers unprecedented spatial and thematic resolution. Since the data sets originate from official databases, we are confident that errors are relatively minor and that our results are generally reliable. Nevertheless, they contain errors in terms of completeness, consistency, and accuracy. Due to the lack of better data sets, we cannot quantify this error here, which means that the impact on the degree of urbanization cannot be quantified.

File identifier
240d25e4-8c5a-4a9b-852d-3d38773545a2 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Hierarchy level name

Dataset

Date stamp
2026-02-02T15:24:49
Metadata standard name

ISO 19115-1:2014/19139

Point of contact
  German Aerospace Center (DLR)
 
 

Overviews

overview
thumbnail
overview
thumbnail

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Buildings Land cover

Provided by

logo
Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


  •   About
  •   Github
  •