| Note |
The WSF 2015 is a 10m resolution raster dataset, outlining the 2015 global settlement extent. The dataset is based on a multi-temporal analysis of over 700,000 Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar and Landsat-8 multispectral satellite images, collected during 2014-15.
First, both Sentinel1 and Landsat-8 data are pre-processed and suitable temporal statistics. A set of spectral indices are used for the effective delineation of human settlements, (NDBI, MNDWI, NDVI, etc.) A DEM is also employed to mask out all pixels whose slope is higher than 10 degrees, in order to exclude these from the analysis. Classification is performed separately for the two types of data (optical and radar) by means of an ensemble of Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifiers. A final post-classification phase is dedicated to properly combine the Landsat- and S1-based classification maps and automatically identifying and deleting potential false alarms.
The WSF2015 is publicly and freely available through figshare repository (https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/World_Settlement_Footprint_WSF_2015/10048412). The archive is organized for download in 306 GeoTIFF files (EPSG4326 projection) each one referring to a portion of 10x10 degree size (~1110x1110km). Additionally, 5 resampled versions are also provided at 100 m, 250 m, 500 m, 1 km and 10 km, respectively, reporting for each pixel the corresponding ground percent surface covered by settlements. More information available at https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Mapping_our_global_human_footprint |