Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-53
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-53
02 Mar 2023
 | 02 Mar 2023
Status: a revised version of this preprint was accepted for the journal ESSD and is expected to appear here in due course.

HISDAC-ES: Historical Settlement Data Compilation for Spain (1900–2020)

Johannes H. Uhl, Dominic Royé, Keith Burghardt, José Antonio Aldrey Vázquez, Manuel Borobio Sanchiz, and Stefan Leyk

Abstract. Multi-temporal measurements quantifying the changes to the Earth’s surface are critical for understanding many natural, anthropogenic, and social processes. Researchers typically use remotely sensed earth observation data to quantify and characterize such changes in land use and land cover (LULC). However, such data sources are limited in their availability prior to the 1980s. While an observational window of 40 to 50 years is sufficient to study most recent LULC changes, processes such as urbanization, land development, and the evolution of urban, and coupled nature-human systems often operate over longer time periods covering several decades or even centuries. Thus, to quantify and better understand such processes, alternative historical-geospatial data sources are required that extend farther back in time. However, such data are rare and processing is labor-intensive, often involving manual work. To overcome the resulting lack in quantitative knowledge of urban systems and the built environment prior to the 1980s, we leverage cadastral data with rich thematic property attribution, such as building usage and construction year. We scraped, harmonized, and processed over 12,000,000 building footprints including construction years to create a multi-faceted series of gridded surfaces, describing the evolution of human settlements in Spain from 1900 to 2020, at 100 m spatial and 5 years temporal resolution. These surfaces include measures of building density, built-up intensity, and built-up land use. We evaluated our data against a variety of data sources including remotely sensed human settlement data and land cover data, model-based historical land use depictions, as well as historical maps and historical aerial imagery, and find high levels of agreement. This new data product, the Historical Settlement Data Compilation for Spain (HISDAC-ES), is publicly available (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22009643; Uhl et al., 2023a) and represents a rich source for quantitative, long-term analyses of the built environment and related processes over large spatial and temporal extents and at fine resolutions.

Johannes H. Uhl et al.

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Tracy Kugler, 31 Mar 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Apr 2023
  • RC3: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Anonymous Referee #3, 26 Apr 2023
  • CC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', F. J. Goerlich, 26 Apr 2023
  • AC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Johannes Uhl, 12 Jul 2023

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Tracy Kugler, 31 Mar 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Apr 2023
  • RC3: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Anonymous Referee #3, 26 Apr 2023
  • CC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', F. J. Goerlich, 26 Apr 2023
  • AC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-53', Johannes Uhl, 12 Jul 2023

Johannes H. Uhl et al.

Data sets

HISDAC-ES: Historical Settlement Data Compilation for Spain (1900-2020) Johannes H. Uhl, Dominic Royé, Keith Burghardt, José Antonio Aldrey Vázquez, Manuel Borobio Sanchiz, Stefan Leyk https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22009643

Model code and software

HISDAC-ES production code Johannes H. Uhl https://github.com/johannesuhl/hisdac-es

Video supplement

Visualizing long-term urbanization and land development in Spain (1900-2020) Johannes H. Uhl, Dominic Royé, Keith Burghardt, José Antonio Aldrey Vázquez, Manuel Borobio Sanchiz, Stefan Leyk https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22064798

Johannes H. Uhl et al.

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Latest update: 30 Sep 2023
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Short summary
Historical, fine-grained geospatial datasets on built-up areas are rarely available, constraining studies of urbanization, settlement evolution, or the dynamics of human-environment interactions to recent decades. In order to provide such historical data, we used publicly available cadastral building data for Spain and created a series of gridded surfaces, measuring age, physical, and land use related features of the built environment in Spain, and the evolution of settlements from 1900 to 2020.