This incredible map shows the world's 2.75 billion buildings

"Professor Xiaoxiang Zhu, who leads the project and is the chair of data science in Earth observation at TUM, says the real achievement is that the new map is a three‑dimensional picture of how much space people actually inhabit. "3D building information provides a much more accurate picture of urbanization and poverty than traditional 2D maps," she explains. With 3D models "we see not only the footprint but also the volume of each building.""

"At first glance, there are some interesting takeaways from the map, like the distribution of building volume clusters around major metropolitan regions-with particularly dense concentrations in East Asia, Europe, and North America. Meanwhile, many parts of the Global South show vast numbers of buildings that are small and low‑rise, especially in Africa, which has more buildings than Europe and North America, but far less total built area and volume."

A global 3D building map was produced from years of satellite imagery using machine-learning algorithms to generate 2D footprints and simple 3D objects for 2.75 billion buildings detected in 2019. The open GlobalBuildingAtlas dataset contains outlines, estimated heights and volumes for individual structures worldwide. High-resolution volume data provide a more accurate measure of urbanization and inhabited space than 2D footprints alone. Spatial patterns show dense built-volume clusters in East Asia, Europe and North America, while many Global South regions have numerous small, low-rise buildings; Africa has more buildings but far less total built area and volume. The dataset supports climate research and tracking sustainable development metrics.

Read at Fast Company