Global Urban Footprint (GUF) - TSX/TDX - Global

The Global Urban Footprint® (GUF®) dataset is based on the radar (SAR) satellite imagery of the German satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. By creating the GUF database, scientists at the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have succeeded in using a newly developed method to generate a global raster map of the world’s built-up pattern in a so far unprecedented spatial resolution of about 12m per raster cell.


Using a fully automated processing system, a global coverage of more than 180,000 very high resolution SAR images (3m ground resolution) has been analyzed acquired between 2010 and 2013. Thereby, the backscatter amplitudes of the SAR data have been used in combination with derived textural information to delineate human settlements in a highly automated, complex decision-making process. The evaluation procedure based mainly on radar signals detects the characteristic vertical structures of human habitations – primarily built-up areas. In addition, auxiliary data such as digital elevation models have been included to improve the classification process. In total, over 20 million datasets were processed with a combined volume of about 320 terabytes. The final global maps show three coverage categories (e. g. in a B/W representation): Built-up areas (vertical structures only) in black, non-built-up surfaces in white, areas of no coverage by TSX/TDX satellites (NoData) as most parts of the oceans in grey.


The final product has been optimized for fast online access through web services by merging the 5 x 5 degree GUF tiles into a single global mosaic. Furthermore reduced resolution overviews have been generated with an interpolation algorithm, that computes the average value of all contribution pixels. The global mosaic uses PackBits compression to reduce file size.


(GUF® and Global Urban Footprint® are protected as trademarks.)

Identification

Data identification

Citation

Date (Publication)
2016-11-18T00:00:00
Citation identifier
https://geoservice.dlr.de/catalogue/srv/metadata/f167eb8a-b2d3-4f86-b0aa-fb246b08dcb3
Presentation form
Digital map
Status
Completed
Point of contact
  German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Author
  German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • Land cover
Keywords

  • Land

  • urbanization

  • global mapping

  • settlement patterns

  • TerraSAR-X

  • TanDEM-X

  • SAR

  • X-Band

  • TSX-1

  • TDX-1

  • texture

Legal constraints

Access constraints
Copyright
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

Nutzungsbedingungen: A non-exclusive, spatially and temporally unlimited, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use GUF is granted free of charge for

- scientific purposes on the high resolution version of GUF® (0.4 arcseconds),

- non-commercial purposes on the low resolution version of the GUF® (2.8 arcseconds).

This license does not grant any commercial use of GUF® or products generated or derived by GUF®.
Use limitation

Nutzungseinschränkungen: GUF® is provided without any warranty. DLR is not liable for damage resulting from use.
Spatial representation type
Grid
Denominator
24000
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Planning cadastre

Extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Begin date
2010-12-01T00:00:00
End date
2013-06-30T00:00:00
 

Distribution

Distribution

Distribution format

Digital transfer options

OnLine resource
Global Urban Footprint
OnLine resource
GUF04_DLR_v1_Mosaic ( OGC:WMS-1.3.0-http-get-map )

WMS access Global Urban Footprint (0.4 arcseconds - 12 m), for scientific use only

OnLine resource
GUF28_DLR_v1_Mosaic ( OGC:WMS-1.3.0-http-get-map )

WMS access Global Urban Footprint (2.8 arcseconds - 84 m), for non-commercial use only

OnLine resource
KML Global Urban Footprint (0.4 arcseconds - 12 m) ( GLG:KML-2.0-http-get-map )
OnLine resource
KML Global Urban Footprint (2.8 arcseconds - 84 m) ( GLG:KML-2.0-http-get-map )
OnLine resource
DLR-GUF License Agreement and Order Form ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
OnLine resource
DLR-GUF Product Specifications ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
OnLine resource
GUF References ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
 

Quality

Data quality

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification
INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Citation

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation

See the referenced specification
Pass
Yes

Lineage

Statement

The Global Urban Footprint® (GUF®) dataset is based on the radar (SAR) satellite imagery of the German satellites TerraSAR X and TanDEM X. Using a fully automated processing system, the so-called Urban Footprint Processor, a global coverage of more than 180,000 very high resolution SAR images (3m ground resolution) has been analyzed, mainly acquired between 2010 and 2013. Thereby, the backscatter amplitudes of the SAR data have been used in combination with derived textural information to delineate human settlements in a highly automated, complex decision-making process. In addition, auxiliary data such as digital elevation models have been included to improve the classification process. The data collection of satellite imagery was performed mainly between 2011 and 2012 (93 %), with single scenes with more recent acquisition dates (of 2013 / 2014) used to fill data gaps.

For more details see:

Esch, T., Marconcini, M., Felbier, A., Roth, A., Heldens, W., Huber, M., Schwinger, M., Taubenböck, H., Müller, A., Dech, S. (2013) Urban Footprint Processor – Fully Automated Processing Chain Generating Settlement Masks from Global Data of the TanDEM-X Mission. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Vol. 10, No. 6, November 2013. Pp. 1617-1621. ISSN 1545-598X, DOI 10.1109/LGRS.2013.2272953 (see: http://elib.dlr.de/83318/ )

Description

All 5° x 5° tiles have been merged with GDAL (v2.1.1) into a global mosaic for fast web delivery.
Description

Reduced resolution overviews have been generated with average interpolation using GDAL (v2.1.1).
 

Spatial rep.

Grid spatial representation

Number of dimensions
2

Dimension

Dimension name
Row
Dimension size
0
Resolution
12  m

Dimension

Dimension name
Column
Dimension size
0
Resolution
12  m
Cell geometry
Area
Transformation parameter availability
No
 

Ref. system

Reference system identifier
EPSG / WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) / 7.4
 

Metadata

Metadata

File identifier
f167eb8a-b2d3-4f86-b0aa-fb246b08dcb3 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2024-06-20T13:06:53
Metadata standard name

ISO 19115:2003/19139
Metadata standard version

1.0
Point of contact
  German Aerospace Center (DLR)
 
 

Overviews

overview
quicklook_guf28_Munich_Alps_2000x2000.png
overview
quicklook_guf28_Munich_Alps_2000x2000_s.png

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Land cover

Provided by

Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available