Mapping China’s Chongqing Region Using GHSL Data

Today’s mapping challenge centered around incorporating data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (or GHSL), a GIS data layer maintained by the European Commission that shows areas of human presence around the world. This data is made freely available for anyone to use and provides spatial insights into the distribution of human settlements on the world. After exploring this data, I decided to map central China, specifically focusing on Chongqing, a city of over 31 million residents and the largest city proper in the world (though there is some controversy among demographers with how this city’s size is measured).

Approach

To make my map, I downloaded the GHSL data from the European Commission’s data portal and began exploring the data in ArcGIS Pro. I focused my map on the Chongqing region and then experimented with various color schemes and backgrounds until I found a set of colors that effectively highlighted human settlement patterns. I used a bilinear resampling type on the GHSL later and the percent clip stretch type in ArcGIS Pro, providing for a smooth looking view of human settlements by density. For an additional point of reference, I added an inset globe in the upper right corner of my map, showing a “zoomed out” version of China.

Overall, I like how this map turned out. You can clearly see the expanses network of Central Chinese cities and lines of light that interconnect them. I think this data layer is beautiful and provides for interesting views of the complex, integrated world we live in. The fact that it is available for free is even better. In exploring this dataset further, I noted that the European Commission also maintains versions of this layers from previous years, including 2000, 1990, 1975. One thing I would like to do in the future is map change in settlement patterns over time. It would be interesting to revisit this project and see how this region has changed since 1975.