GlobalBuildingMap -- Unveiling the Mystery of Global Buildings

TL;DR

This paper presents the creation of the most detailed global building map using satellite imagery, revealing insights into building distribution, solar energy potential, and socioeconomic correlations to aid environmental and societal modeling.

Contribution

The paper introduces the highest resolution global building map generated from nearly 800,000 satellite images, enabling new analyses of energy and socioeconomic factors.

Findings

Rooftop solar panels on all buildings could meet global energy needs in 2020.

The global building map shows strong correlations with socioeconomic variables.

This map can improve modeling of human footprint and resource distribution.

Abstract

Understanding how buildings are distributed globally is crucial to revealing the human footprint on our home planet. This built environment affects local climate, land surface albedo, resource distribution, and many other key factors that influence well-being and human health. Despite this, quantitative and comprehensive data on the distribution and properties of buildings worldwide is lacking. To this end, by using a big data analytics approach and nearly 800,000 satellite images, we generated the highest resolution and highest accuracy building map ever created: the GlobalBuildingMap (GBM). A joint analysis of building maps and solar potentials indicates that rooftop solar energy can supply the global energy consumption need at a reasonable cost. Specifically, if solar panels were placed on the roofs of all buildings, they could supply 1.1-3.3 times -- depending on the efficiency of the solar device -- the global energy consumption in 2020, which is the year with the highest consumption on record. We also identified a clear geospatial correlation between building areas and key socioeconomic variables, which indicates our global building map can serve as an important input to modeling global socioeconomic needs and drivers.