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Understanding how people build, expand, and occupy space has become a strategic priority for governments and emergency planners. Yet most global datasets still represent the built environment in two dimensions, offering little insight into building height, volume, or density—factors that directly shape disaster exposure, energy demand, evacuation planning, and infrastructure vulnerability. A new global dataset aims to close that information gap.
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have unveiled the GlobalBuildingAtlas, the first high-resolution 3D map covering 2.75 billion buildings worldwide. Built from 2019 satellite imagery and funded through the European Research Council, the dataset is 30 times more detailed than previous global maps and spans regions that were historically under-mapped, including Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and vast rural territories.
The core problem the project addresses is the lack of consistent global building data. Earlier datasets often focused on high-income urban centers, leaving major gaps in areas where cities are growing fastest. The new atlas models each building at 3×3-meter resolution, precise enough to estimate structural volume, height, and clustering. Roughly 97% of the entries meet Level of Detail 1 (LoD1), a simplified but highly scalable 3D format well-suited for computational analysis.
This level of detail enables more accurate models for urbanization patterns, infrastructure loads, energy demand, and climate-risk assessments. Researchers also introduced a new metric—building volume per capita—which highlights disparities in living conditions that cannot be detected in 2D maps. Areas with low footprint but tall structures, or sprawling low-rise settlements, now appear distinctly in global comparisons.
For homeland security and defense planners, such datasets support mission areas that rely heavily on environmental awareness. Three-dimensional building models enhance simulations for disaster response, mass-evacuation planning, line-of-sight analysis, and infrastructure vulnerability mapping. They also improve situational models for humanitarian relief, border-zone infrastructure monitoring, and emergency communications planning, where accurate terrain and building geometry are critical.
The GlobalBuildingAtlas is already attracting interest from organizations such as the German Aerospace Center, which is examining its use in the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, a global mechanism that coordinates satellite data during emergencies. As climate risks intensify and cities continue to expand, the new dataset provides a global reference layer for planning more resilient, secure, and equitable urban environments.
