GHSL - Global Human Settlement Layer

More than 12.4k billion of individual image data records* collected by different satellite sensors in the past 40 years are classified and automatically selected if they correspond to a built-up structure. In different seasons, illumination conditions and any different geographical location and building practices. The presence of a building is the concrete sign of the human presence as recognized from space technologies. This enormous amount of information is aggregated in this small picture showing the density of buildings per unit surface in the whole landmass as understood by the machines automatically analyzing the image data: from darker (no buildings recognized) to brighter (spatial units full of buildings – or high density of buildings).

The data is organized in four epochs: 1975, 1990, 2000, and 2014. The pulsing of the white patches is a representation of the human activity in making new buildings in the past 40 years. It is the first time that humanity can be made aware of this simple fact, thanks to the most recent advances on spatial data mining technologies, and the availability of open and free image data input.

Augmented human self-awareness: new technologies for improving collective, free and open knowledge and objective understanding.

* A person taking one second to classify each individual data record, would need more than 390.000 years to finalize the task.