settlementcheck
Settlement context, globally.
Offline Degree of Urbanisation lookup.
On this page
Interactive demo
Why DEGURBA?
Check if a point belongs to an urban centre, cluster, suburb, rural settlement, low-density countryside, or water—offline.
DEGURBA considers not only population density but also connected cells, cluster population, distance, permanent land, and smoothing. That makes it useful for settlement context, urban/rural stratification, sampling, service-area analysis, and contextual map styling. This library uses 1-km grid as the master source.
Results
class_share is the dominant source-class area share inside the T3 cell—not confidence. mixed marks a source boundary. A finer triangle represents that boundary; it does not improve on the source's 1 km analytical resolution.
The Level-1 source hierarchy puts water in its residual “rural grid cell” domain. Use surface to distinguish water, land, mixed coast, and unknown/nodata.
DEGURBA classes
| Code | Public value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | urban_centre | Urban centre |
| 23 | dense_urban_cluster | Dense urban cluster |
| 22 | semi_dense_urban_cluster | Semi-dense urban cluster |
| 21 | suburban_or_peri_urban | Suburban or peri-urban |
| 13 | rural_cluster | Rural cluster |
| 12 | low_density_rural | Low-density rural |
| 11 | very_low_density_rural | Very-low-density rural |
| 10 | water | Water grid cell |
Python
From a checkout of this repository:
pip install ./settlementcheck
from settlementcheck import SettlementCheck
sc = SettlementCheck()
r = sc.classify(24.7536, 59.4370)
print(r.settlement_class)
# sc.check(...) lazily reads optional local details.JavaScript
From a checkout of this repository:
npm install ./settlementcheck
import { SettlementCheck } from "settlementcheck";
const sc = await SettlementCheck.fromFile();
const r = sc.classify(24.7536, 59.4370);
// await sc.checkAsync(...) loads optional details.Source and provenance
The bundled data derives from the European Commission Joint Research Centre's GHS-WUP-DEGURBA R2025A, epoch 2025, using projected 2025 population input. Read the methodology report and product record. Data reuse is CC BY 4.0; the Trifold transfer is a change to representation, not to the DEGURBA method.
Data and loading
The 4.58 MB class core loads first. Boundary details are optional shards by icosahedron face; the default cache retains two faces. No detail shard downloads until requested. Population counts, settlement names and administrative layers are not included.
| Field (Python) | Core only | With details |
|---|---|---|
| class_share | null | Dominant source-class area share |
| mixed / nodata_mixed | null | Boundary / nodata mixture flags |
| details_loaded | false | true |
JavaScript uses camelCase. Unknown details never imply a homogeneous cell.
Use classify for offline classes, checkAsync for lazy details in JavaScript,
and check for optional local details in Python. Install the core from this repository
with pip install ./settlementcheck or npm install ./settlementcheck.
See the loading API and optional details setup.
settlementcheck · a Trifold T3 library · code MIT · derived data CC BY 4.0