Using remote sensing methodologies to realistically demarcate settlement structures like conurbations, cities, suburbs and rural areas on the basis of spatial use patterns such as building and population density is the goal of the IF-Bund innovation project “Remote sensing to determine the borders of settlement structures and territorial units” (FE4ErSiGG). This German Aerospace Center (DLR) project began in December 2021, runs for one year, and is being carried out jointly with the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), with the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) in an advisory capacity.
Up to now, settlement structures in Germany were defined in terms of settlement structure data for official administrative units like communities and counties. However, this approach frequently yields imprecise results because of the irregular border outlines of such units. Cities, for example, can only be conditionally differentiated from their surroundings. In the FE4ErSiGG project, DLR, BBSR and BiB researchers are taking an alternative approach. Instead of administrative data, various remote sensing data sets are being employed to generate consistent spatial units that can be used to more precisely describe settlement structures. This should make it possible, for example, to more accurately determine the number of inhabitants in urban regions and their surroundings. With these new territorial units the project results should accordingly contribute to a better analysis of societal factors like changes in the population, commuter connections, and suburbanization in a given area. Such analyses can in turn improve the basis for political planning decisions.