Shows the percentage of impervious (sealed) surface cover per pixel, such as asphalt, concrete and buildings. It is based on the Resource Watch global 30m impervious surfaces mosaic (dataset CIT039, reference year 2015) served through Google Earth Engine. Values range from 0% (fully permeable, natural ground) to 100% (fully sealed); the colour scale runs from green for unsealed land to grey for completely sealed land.
This layer quantifies soil sealing as the percentage of impervious surface cover per pixel. Impervious surfaces (asphalt, concrete, roofs and other artificial materials) prevent water infiltration, increase surface runoff and contribute to the urban heat island effect. The map helps identify the degree of urbanisation and land take within a monitored area.
| Code | Provider | Resolution | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| WRD_CIT039_01 | Resource Watch (via Google Earth Engine) | 30 m | 2015 |
Method: The GEE asset projects/resource-watch-gee/cit_039_impervious_surfaces_30m_mosaic (band b1) is clipped to the area of interest. The source band is byte-encoded (0-255); it is rescaled by dividing by 2.55 to obtain a true 0-100% impervious-cover raster, then reprojected to Web Mercator at 30 m. Per-area statistics (minimum, maximum and mean percentage) are computed over the valid pixels.