Global Human Settlement Layer Added to the Dataset API

The Copernicus Global Human Settlement Layer is now in the Dataset API, adding built-up surface, built-up volume and population counts alongside the weather and climate data already there.

The layer provides three variables from the Joint Research Centre: built-up surface, built-up volume and population expressed as people per grid cell. Values are served on a 30 arc-second grid, roughly 1 km, and are listed under Socioeconomic (Static) in the dataset interface.

Which years are served

meteoblue serves the 2025 and 2030 layers. Both sit beyond the most recent observed epoch of the underlying dataset, which is built from Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery up to 2018, so both should be read as projections rather than measurements.

What it is useful for

Combined with weather and climate data from the same API, the layer supports exposure analysis, for example estimating how many people and how much built infrastructure sit inside an area affected by a hazard.