BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have released annual maps of global artificial impervious area between 1985 and 2018, offering data support for global urbanization studies.
Impervious areas are one of the most significant features of an urban environment. They mainly include artificial structures that eliminate water infiltration, such as asphalt and concrete roads, parking lots and buildings. Data on impervious areas with high spatial and temporal resolutions are crucial for urban studies.
Researchers from the Department of Earth System Science of Tsinghua University mapped the global annual impervious area from 1985 to 2018 with a resolution of 30 meters, using remotely sensed data combined with advanced algorithms.
Results suggested a noticeable difference of urbanization in different regions. North America and Asia account for about 70 percent of the global impervious area. Over the past three decades, the proportion of impervious areas in Asia has increased from 34 percent to 43 percent. In addition, East and South Asia are the main drivers of global urbanization in the past three decades.
According to Gong Peng, the lead researcher, his team is also working on large-scale mapping projects of other special cover types such as wetlands, forests and waterways.
The data can be accessed online and downloaded for free. The research was published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.
