GRID3 Tanzania Settlement Extents, Version 01.01

Settlement extents and associated population estimates are derived from two primary input datasets: (1) building footprints and (2) population estimates. Both the settlements’ extents and classification are derived solely from Ecopia’s building footprints. Data analysis and processing were achieved entirely using Esri’s ArcGIS software (Pro version 2.7.3), it’s native module arcpy, and open source python library pandas 1.3.0.

The GRID3 Tanzania settlement extents are then classified (based on building density) into three classes: built-up areas (BUA), small settlement areas (SSA), and Hamlets (Barau et al., 2014). These three classes of settlement agglomerations are presented below:

Built-up areas (BUAs): A built-up area (BUA) is generally an area of urbanisation with moderately-to-densely-spaced buildings and a visible grid of streets and blocks. BUAs are characterized as polygons that maintain a 100 m2 building density of 13 or more across an area greater than or equal to 0.4 km2.

Small Settlements (SSAs): A small settlement (SSA) is a settled area of permanently inhabited structures and compounds of roughly a few hundred to a few thousand inhabitants. The housing pattern in SSAs is an assemblage of family compounds adjoining other similar habitations. SSAs areas are characterised as polygons containing 50 or more buildings and not a BUA.

Hamlet (HAMLET): A hamlet is a collection of several compounds or sleeping houses in isolation from small settlements or urban areas. Hamlets are characterised as polygons containing between 1 and 49 buildings.

See "Tanzania GRID3 Settlement Extents Version 01.01.pdf" for more details

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See “Tanzania GRID3 Settlement Extents Version 01.pdf" for more details