Operational procedure for multi-temporal assessment of built-up surfaces and volumes in the Global Human Settlement Layer R2023A

Long-term monitoring of the built-up area is essential in order to study political indicators and their trends over time, which forms the basis for their future projections and public discussion of sustainable development paths. So far, the joint use of Landsat and Sentinel sensors for long-term built-up surface monitoring was an unsolved task in the state-of-the-art applications of remote sensing. This JRC study introduces an integrated solution for inferring changes on built-up surfaces from Sentinel-2 MSI images, combined with historical Landsat scenes, organized into four epochs 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014. The objective of this study is two-fold. First, develop a methodology for estimating multi-temporal global built-up surface and volumes that allows for controlled estimates of built-up change in time in rural and urban areas. Secondly, deliver the multi-temporal assessment of global built-up surfaces and volumes with greater accuracy than in the previous Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) products.