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clms_ua_building-height_europe_10m_3yearly_v1·dataset

Building heights in European cities (Copernicus)

CLMS Urban Atlas Building Block Height (BBH) (10m) - Europe
land ESA ESA Copernicus
In plain English

What it measures. Provides the height of buildings, block by block, across major European urban areas, for the 2021 reference year.

How it's made. ESA Copernicus derives the heights from satellite imagery and elevation models (surface and terrain models), delivered as a 10-metre map for selected cities.

How & where you'd use it. Helps city planners, architects, and researchers study urban density, solar potential, wind flow, and 3D city modelling.

What's measured

CLMSCopernicusEuropeUrban AtlasUrbanUARasterBBHBuilding HeightBuildingElevationFUALand CoverLand Use

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Urban Atlas Building Blocks Height (BBH) product provides high-resolution building height information for Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) in Europe for the 2021 reference year. The dataset is a 10 m resolution raster layer containing height information generated for selected cities and urban areas as part of the Urban Atlas suite of products. Height information is based on satellite data and derived datasets like the Digital Surface Model (DSM), the Digital Terrain Model (DTM), and the normalized DSM. It is part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and is produced for selected Urban Atlas reference years. The data is provided in GeoTIFF raster format with EPSG:3035 projection.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["clms_ua_building-height_europe_10m_3yearly_v1"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.