March 2021

Global One-Eighth Degree Urban Land Extent Projection and Base Year Grids by SSP Scenarios, v1 (2000–2100)


PURPOSE

To provide global SSP-consistent spatial urban land projections and base year grids based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) data at a resolution of one-eighth degree (7.5 arc-minutes) for climate, socioeconomic, environmental, and other related research.


DESCRIPTION

The Global One-Eighth Degree Urban Land Extent Projection and Base Year Grids by SSP Scenarios, 2000-2100 consists of global SSP-consistent spatial urban land fraction data for the base year 2000 and projections at ten-year intervals for 2010-2100 at a resolution of one-eighth degree (7.5 arc-minutes). Spatial urban land projections are key inputs for the analysis of land use, energy use, and emissions, as well as for the assessment of climate change vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. This data set presents a set of global, spatially explicit urban land scenarios that are consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) to produce an empirically-grounded set of urban land spatial distributions over the 21st century. A data-science approach is used exploiting 15 diverse data sets, including a newly available 40-year global time series of fine-spatial-resolution remote sensing observations from the Landsat satellite series. The SSPs are developed to support future climate and global change research, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), along with Special Reports.


ACCESSING THE DATA

The data may be downloaded at https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/ssp-1-8th-urban-land-extent-projection-base-year-ssp-2000-2100/data-download


DATA FORMAT

This archive for the Base Year 2000 contains gridded data in GeoTIFF, Esri Grid, and netCDF formats.

This archive for the Projections 2010-2100 contains gridded data in GeoTIFF, Esri Grid, and netCDF formats.

This archive for the Ancillary Layers contains gridded data in GeoTIFF, Esri Grid, and netCDF formats

The data files are compressed zipfiles. Downloaded files need to be uncompressed in a single folder using either WinZip (Windows file compression utility) or similar application. Users should expect an increase in the size of downloaded data after decompression. 


DATA VALUES

Data values are in fraction of urban land.


SPATIAL EXTENT

Global one-eighth degree (7.5 arc-minutes).


DISCLAIMER

CIESIN follows procedures designed to ensure that data disseminated by CIESIN are of reasonable quality. If, despite these procedures, users encounter apparent errors or misstatements in the data, they should contact SEDAC User Services at ciesin.info@ciesin.columbia.edu. Neither CIESIN nor NASA verifies or guarantees the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of any data provided. CIESIN provides this data without warranty of any kind whatsoever, either expressed or implied. CIESIN shall not be liable for incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of the use of any data provided by CIESIN.


USE CONSTRAINTS

Users are free to use, copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work for commercial and non-commercial purposes, without restriction, as long as clear attribution of the source is provided.


RECOMMENDED CITATION(S)

Data Set:

Gao, J. and B. C. O'Neill. 2021. Global One-Eighth Degree Urban Land Extent Projection and Base Year Grids by SSP Scenarios, 2000-2100. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). https://doi.org/10.7927/nj0x-8y67. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR.

Scientific Publication:

Gao, J. and B. C. O'Neill. 2020. Mapping Global Urban Land for the 21st Century with Data-driven Simulations and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Nature Communications 11:2302. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15788-7.