Weighing the global built environment: High‐resolution mapping and quantification of material stocks in buildings

Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 29, pp. 159–172

Abstract

Abstract Buildings provide indispensable services for human well‐being, but their construction and use are responsible for a substantial fraction of societies’ resource requirements and greenhouse gas emissions. Mapping and quantifying the material stocks in buildings is a key research frontier in industrial ecology. Reliable and spatially highly resolved maps of material stocks in buildings worldwide are so far not available. Existing approaches based on nighttime light data allow large‐scale coverage, but their spatial resolution is usually ∼0.5–1 km. Other methods using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and cadaster data achieve higher resolution and accuracy, but do not allow wall‐to‐wall mapping of large regions. Based on high‐resolution Earth Observation data combined with material intensity factors (kg per m 3 of building volume), we quantify and map material stocks in buildings at the unprecedented resolution of 90 m globally. We distinguish 18 types of materials in five types of buildings. We find that global material stocks in buildings amount to 547 (391–672) Gt, approximately half of total global societal material stocks. We find highly unequal distributions of material stocks in buildings per capita and per unit area of each country. Our results agree well with previous detailed estimates of material stocks in buildings in dedicated regions or individual cities. Improved and harmonized material intensity factors emerge as a key research area for improving the accuracy of material stock maps. Our results are available as data products with high spatial and thematic resolution to facilitate future studies; for example, of secondary resource potentials. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .

Authors 13

1. Helmut Haberl corresponding

   BOKU University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University Vienna Austria

   Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

2. André Baumgart

   BOKU University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University Vienna Austria

   Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

3. Julian Zeidler

   Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

   Affiliation as printed

   German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) German Aerospace Center (DLR) Oberpfaffenhofen Germany

   German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

4. Franz Schug

   University of Wisconsin–Madison

   Affiliation as printed

   SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison Wisconsin USA

5. David Frantz

   Universität Trier

   Affiliation as printed

   Geoinformatics – Spatial Data Science Trier University Trier Germany

6. Daniela Palacios‐Lopez

   Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

   Affiliation as printed

   German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) German Aerospace Center (DLR) Oberpfaffenhofen Germany

   German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

7. Tomer Fishman Aachen Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden University Leiden Netherlands Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) Leiden University Leiden Netherlands

   Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

8. Yoav Peled

   Reichman University

   Affiliation as printed

   IDC Herzliya Haifa Israel

   IDC Herzliya, Haifa, Israel

9. Bowen Cai

   Wuhan University · BOKU University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University Vienna Austria

   School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering Wuhan University Wuhan China

   Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

   School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

10. Doris Virág

    BOKU University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University Vienna Austria

    Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

11. Patrick Hostert

    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

    Affiliation as printed

    Geography Department Humboldt‐Universität zu Berlin Berlin Germany

12. Dominik Wiedenhofer

    BOKU University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University Vienna Austria

    Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

13. Thomas Esch

    Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) · Stuttgart Technical University of Applied Sciences

    Affiliation as printed

    Faculty of Geomatics, Computer Science and Mathematics Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HFT) Stuttgart Germany

    German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) German Aerospace Center (DLR) Oberpfaffenhofen Germany

    Faculty of Geomatics, Computer Science and Mathematics, Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HFT), Stuttgart, Germany

    German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany