Urban & Developed
Geospatial Data
Urban impervious surfaces—defined as artificial materials through which water does not penetrate (e.g., concrete and asphalt roads, sidewalks, and buildings)—impact energetic, chemical, and hydrological fluxes, as well as biodiversity, economies, and even human health. Impervious surfaces are indicators of economic development and are the causes of increased surface and air temperatures, as well as hydroperiod variability, streamwater temperature, sediment load, and levels of heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorous, and fecal coliform bacteria. The terraPulse urbanization data products map urban cover and change through spatio-temporal measurements of impervious surface cover. The data are based on high-resolution satellite estimates of building and pavement cover, interpolated to 30-meter, annual resolution using Landsat, Sentinel, and other data sources. Through the terraPulse Land Cover Dataset, the Impervious Surface Cover layer is also available as a binary measurement at 1-meter resolution, with historical coverage depending on availability of high-resolution imagery.
