Land Surface Imperviousness
EO Capability Benefits
An impervious surface is a type of land cover consisting of man-made urbanised elements such as built-up areas. These surfaces are made from materials (e.g., concrete, asphalt, tar, or mixtures of these materials) that prevent water from penetrating penetrating the ground. The increase in such surfaces contributes not only to habitat fragmentation and the loss of biodiversity, but also disrupts the natural hydrological and carbon cycles, preventing groundwater recharge and natural filtration while exacerbating the effects of urban heat islands and stormwater runoff.
EO Capability Description
EO data can quantify the percentage of support the detection of impervious surfaces by representing the degree of impervious sealed surfaces, usually derived from multi-temporal analysis of vegetation indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Over time, changes in vegetation indices can reveal the expansion of impervious surfaces, offering insights into urban growth patterns, land-use changes, and environmental impacts. This is a product which lends itself to being updated in multi-year intervals.
Indicative Cost Range Details
For Europe, the 10m High-Resolution Layer Imperviousness, produced every three years, is freely available. For the US, a Fractional Impervious Surface data product is provided annually.