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A population density grid of the European Union

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Abstract

This paper describes four methods used to produce dasymetric population density grids combining population data per commune with CORINE Land Cover, a map available for all countries of the European Union. An accuracy assessment has been carried out for five countries for which a very reliable 1-km population density grid exists; the improvement, compared with the choropleth map per commune, ranges between 20% for the weakest result in Finland and 62% for the best result in the Netherlands. The best results are obtained with a method using logit regression to integrate information from the point survey LUCAS (Land Use/Cover Area frame Survey); however, performance differences between methods are moderate. The dasymetric grid is distributed free of charge by the European Environment Agency, for non-commercial use.

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Acknowledgments

Eurostat provided most of the data for the study. We are particularly grateful to César de Diego, Daniele Rizzi, Albrecht Wirthmann, Daniel Rase, Torbiorn Carlquist and Edwin Schaaf. The European forum for Geostatistics provided reference data for validation thanks to Ingrid Kaminger, Rina Tammisto, Niek van Leeuwen, Erik Sommer and Lars Backer. Roger Milego, Oscar Gómez, Stefan Kleeshulte and Tomas Soukup, from the European Topic Centre of Terrestrial Environment (ETC/TE) made useful suggestion. Mette Lund managed the distribution of the results through the EEA dataservice. Brooke Tapsall and four anonymous reviewers made useful suggestions to improve the paper.

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  1. IPSC, JRC, 21020, Ispra, Varese, Italy

    Francisco Javier Gallego

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  1. Francisco Javier Gallego
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Correspondence to Francisco Javier Gallego.

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Gallego, F.J. A population density grid of the European Union. Popul Environ 31, 460–473 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-010-0108-y

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