Global Urban Boundaries Derived from GAIA Data, 1990-2025

Mapping global urban boundaries from the global artificial impervious area (GAIA) data includes global urban boundary polygons derived from 30-meter GAIA data for eight representative years (1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025). Each shapefile provides the spatial extent of urban boundaries for the corresponding year. The dataset is authored by Xuecao Li and associated researchers, with details published in Environmental Research Letters in 2020.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global urban expansion trends based on the eight representative years of data.
• Mapping changes in artificial impervious surfaces over time based on the 30-meter GAIA source.
• Comparing urban boundary extents across different continents or regions based on the global coverage.
• Modeling urban growth patterns and forecasting future urban areas based on the historical time series.

Strengths

• Provides data for eight distinct years spanning a 35-year period from 1990 to 2025.
• Derived from a consistent 30-meter resolution global source (GAIA).
• Data format is ESRI Shapefile, a standard for geospatial analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the specific eight snapshot years.

Provenance

Source

Derived from Global Artificial Impervious Area (GAIA) data.

Time Range

1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 02:00:26; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global