Urban Area Mapping and Planning

Rapid urbanization and unplanned growth challenge cities, increasing pressure on resources, green spaces, and infrastructure. Cities need accurate, up-to-date mapping tools to monitor changes and plan effectively.

Earth Observation (EO) provides high-resolution satellite imagery and data for mapping land use, tracking urban expansion, and identifying changes in green spaces. These insights support urban planners in managing growth and enhancing sustainability.

World Settlement Footprint (WSF)

The WSF provides global maps of urban structures using Sentinel and Landsat data. It includes detailed layers such as WSF Evolution for tracking urban expansion from 1985 to 2025 and WSF 3D for building height estimations. These tools help cities analyze settlement patterns and monitor urban sprawl.

Figure: World Settlement Footprint 2019 – WSF® 2019 (10m resolution)

Copernicus Urban Atlas

Urban Atlas, part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, offers high-resolution land cover and land use maps for 788 Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) in Europe. It includes detailed datasets such as building block heights, street tree layers, and annual land cover updates. The service provides multi-temporal change maps from 2006 onwards, supporting urban planners in tracking growth patterns, identifying green infrastructure, and analyzing soil sealing trends for sustainable urban development.

Figure: Urban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use 2018

EnviroSense Urban Insights Tool

A private sector solution developed (by EnviroSense) with the Municipality of Debrecen, Hungary. It provides time-series analysis of urban growth using Sentinel and aerial data. It also maps green corridors and detects unauthorized construction, supporting data-driven urban planning decisions.

Figure: Differences between official cadastre and reality in Debrecen, Hungary

MindEarth Building Energy Efficiency Mapping

MindEarth applies EO data combined with street-level imagery and artificial intelligence to estimate building energy performance and classify urban structures. This solution helps cities identify energy-inefficient buildings and plan targeted retrofitting projects. The tool integrates high-resolution satellite images and AI-driven analysis to provide building-level energy efficiency maps for decision-makers.

Figure: Energy efficiency class of buildings, ranking them from "A" to "G" (most to least energy-efficient)

Further resources

Relevant projects

Related materials

Webinar series on EO Supporting Urban Issues – Webinar: Mapping Urban Landscapes (see more here)

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