Global Mapping of Three-Dimensional Urban Structures Reveals Escalating Utilization in the Vertical Dimension and Pronounced Building Space Inequality

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) urban structures play a critical role in informing climate mitigation strategies aimed at the built environment and facilitating sustainable urban development. Regrettably, there exists a significant gap in detailed and consistent data on 3D building space structures with global coverage due to the challenges inherent in the data collection and model calibration processes. In this study, we constructed a global urban structure (GUS-3D) dataset, including building volume, height, and footprint information, at a 500 m spatial resolution using extensive satellite observation products and numerous reference building samples. Our analysis indicated that the total volume of buildings worldwide in 2015 exceeded 1 × 10¹² m³. Over the 1985 to 2015 period, we observed a slight increase in the magnitude of 3D building volume growth (i.e., it increased from 166.02 km³ during the 1985–2000 period to 175.08 km³ during the 2000–2015 period), while the expansion magnitudes of the two-dimensional (2D) building footprint (22.51 × 10³ vs 13.29 × 10³ km²) and urban extent (157 × 10³ vs 133.8 × 10³ km²) notably decreased. This trend highlights the significant increase in intensive vertical utilization of urban land. Furthermore, we identified significant heterogeneity in building space provision and inequality across cities worldwide. This inequality is particularly pronounced in many populous Asian cities, which has been overlooked in previous studies on economic inequality. The GUS-3D dataset shows great potential to deepen our understanding of the urban environment and creates new horizons for numerous 3D urban studies.