Global map of Local Climate Zones

A global 100 m spatial resolution Local Climate Zone (LCZ) map, derived from multiple earth observation datasets and expert LCZ class labels.

The LCZ map is based on the LCZ typology (Stewart and Oke, 2012) that distinguish urban surfaces accounting for their typical combination of micro-scale land-covers and associated physical properties. The LCZ scheme is distinguished from other land use / land cover schemes by its focus on urban and rural landscape types, which can be described by any of the 17 classes in the LCZ scheme.

Out of the 17 LCZ classes, 10 reflect the 'built' environment, and each LCZ type is associated with generic numerical descriptions of key urban canopy parameters critical to model atmospheric responses to urbanisation. In addition, since LCZs were originally designed as a new framework for urban heat island studies (Stewart and Oke, 2012), they also contain a limited set (7) of 'natural' land-cover classes that can be used as 'control' or 'natural reference' areas. As these seven natural classes in the LCZ scheme can not capture the heterogeneity of the world’s existing natural ecosystems, we advise users - if required - to combine the built LCZ classes with any other land-cover product that provides a wider range of natural land-cover classes.

Stewart ID, Oke TR. (2012). Local Climate Zones for Urban Temperature Studies. Bull Am Meteorol Soc. 93(12):1879-1900. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00019.1