New global urban mapping and comparison of 1km resolution global urban maps in China

Approximately half of the world population lives in urban area. Ninety percent of urbanization is occurring in low income countries. These population shifts will affect large social, environmental, economic and public health impacts. Therefore there is a need for timely information on human settlement distribution, location and size. Global scale urban maps : Global Chart of the world product, from the MODIS Land Cover Product Binary Data from Boston University by fusing various imagery sources, Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC2000) and new produced data GLCNMO (Global land cover mapping by national mapping organization) are available in the public. Because of differences in data sources, classification systems and methodologies, it is important to compare and validate these global maps before using them for a variety of studies at regional scale. Here we describe GLCNMO urban mapping methodology and compared with existing global urban maps on the scale of China. The resolute showed that GLCNMO urban maps are more accurate than others.