Start of the Urban Atlas 2024 Production

GeoVille is proud to contribute to the production of Urban Atlas 2024, the latest release under the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) led by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Building on previous mapping campaigns (2006, 2012, 2018, and 2021), the Urban Atlas 2024 production will deliver an updated, high-resolution land cover and land use dataset for Europe’s Functional Urban Areas (FUAs), supporting decision-making in urban planning, sustainability, and environmental monitoring.

The new production will cover over 1.2 million km² across the EEA-38 countries + UK, targeting more than 850 FUAs. The dataset will include:

• Change layer (2021–2024): Detecting LC/LU changes with thematic detail consistent with Urban Atlas nomenclature.
• Status layer 2024: A harmonised snapshot of current land use patterns.
• Revision of Status layer 2021: Updated based on change-detection outcomes and validation.
• Green Urban Areas (GUA): Covering ~6,684 km², including classification of public (class 14110), private (class 14120), and unknown (class 14130) accessibility.
• Building Block Height 2024 (BBH): Providing 3D information on urban structure and built-up intensity at building-block scale..

This multi-layered portfolio provides a spatial foundation for analysing trends such as urban sprawl, re-densification, infrastructure expansion, and the distribution of accessible green spaces in European cities.

GeoVille plays a key role in this production through:

•    Change detection analysis, with the help of Sentinel-2 time series,
•   refining the Green Urban Area layer, including accessibility labels like public, private and unknown.

Urban Atlas is more than just a dataset – it is a vital tool supporting European policies including the EU Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and UN SDG 11.7, which calls for universal access to safe, inclusive, and accessible green public spaces.

Urban Atlas 2024 will provide:

•    A transparent basis for policy monitoring
•   Data-driven insights for urban sustainability
•   Open-access data for citizens, researchers, and planners

The update of Urban Atlas 2024 will strengthen Europe's ability to monitor and manage urban growth, climate resilience, and land use efficiency. GeoVille remains committed to supporting EEA and Copernicus in delivering actionable, harmonised urban data across Europe.