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 and population counts alongside the weather and climate data already there.

The layer provides two built-up surface components, total built-up surface and non-residential built-up surface, together with population expressed as people per grid cell. It is listed under Socioeconomic (Static) in the dataset interface.

How the data is produced

The data comes from Copernicus and is derived from multi-sensor satellite imagery. Landsat imagery supports the 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014 epochs, and a Sentinel-2 composite supports 2018. Values for later years, including the 2025 and 2030 layers, are interpolated from those observations rather than observed directly, so they should be read as projections.

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.