This dataset presents the refined version of the degree of urbanisation of European countries. The degree of urbanisation relies on a population grid to classify local units. Originally the classification system was developed for the European Statistical System to classify local units into three classes (level 1): cities, towns & suburbs, and rural areas. In this version the classification was further refined (level 2) to also identify smaller individual settlements; distinguishing towns from suburbs and identifying villages, dispersed areas and mostly uninhabited areas in former rural areas class. The final classes of the refined degree of urbanisation dataset are six, namely 1) cities, 2) towns, 3) suburbs, 4) villages, 5) dispersed rural areas and 6) mostly uninhabited areas. The temporal reference is set between 2011 and 2012 because of the main inputs, the GEOSTAT population grid 2011 and the European Settlement Map 2012 from Copernicus. IMPORTANT NOTE: This metadata has been created using draft documentation provided by the European Commission, DG REGIO. This dataset has been created by the European Commission, DG Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO) in cooperation with the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Re-distribution or re-use of this dataset is allowed provided that the source is acknowledged.

Percentage of built-up area (PBA) measures how large the built-up areas are (in % of the landscape). PBA is a component of the new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP). WUP is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Values for landscapes of differing sizes can be directly compared because PBA is an intensive metric, i.e., the value does not depend on the size of the landscape. The PBA dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

GISCO (Geographic Information System of the COmmission) is responsible for meeting the European Commission's geographical information needs at three levels: the European Union, its member countries, and its regions. In addition to creating statistical and other thematic maps, GISCO manages a database of geographical information, and provides related services to the Commission. Its database contains core geographical data covering the whole of Europe, such as administrative boundaries, and thematic geospatial information, such as population grid data. Some data are available for download by the general public and may be used for non-commercial purposes. For further details and information about any forthcoming new or updated datasets, see http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata. This metadata refers to the whole content of GISCO reference database extracted in July 2018, which contains both public datasets and datasets to be used only internally by the EEA. The document GISCO-ConditionsOfUse.pdf provided with the dataset gives information on the copyrighted data sources, the mandatory acknowledgement clauses and re-dissemination rights. The license conditions for EuroGeographic datasets in GISCO are provided in a standalone document "LicenseConditions_EuroGeographics.pdf". The database is provided in GDB and in SQLITE, with datasets at scales from 1:60M to 1:100K, with reference years spanning until 2016. The database manual, a file with the content of the database, and a document with the naming conventions are also provided with the database. For particular datasets extracted from this database (NUTS 2016 and COUNTRIES 2016) please refer to the associated resources in the EEA SDI catalogue. NOTE: This metadata file is only for internal EEA purposes and in no case replaces the official metadata provided by Eurostat.

The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Besides WUP and its components, the other indicator was calculated: Utilisation Density (UD). UD measures the number of people living and working per km2 of built-up area.

The degree of urban dispersion (DIS) characterizes the settlement pattern in a geometric perspective and is based on the distances between any two points within built-up areas (average taken over all possible pairs of points, up to a maximum distance called the horizon of perception). DIS is input to the Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric, which has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. The DIS dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

Percentage of built-up area (PBA) measures how large the built-up areas are (in % of the landscape). PBA is a component of the new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP). WUP is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Values for landscapes of differing sizes can be directly compared because PBA is an intensive metric, i.e., the value does not depend on the size of the landscape. The PBA dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

The degree of urban dispersion (DIS) characterizes the settlement pattern in a geometric perspective and is based on the distances between any two points within built-up areas (average taken over all possible pairs of points, up to a maximum distance called the horizon of perception). DIS is input to the Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric, which has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. The DIS dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

Urban Permeation (UP) is a measure of the permeation of a landscape by built‑up areas; it describes the degree to which the landscape is permeated by patches of built-up area. It is calculated from the new urban sprawl metric "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP). Weighted Urban Proliferation is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. The WUP metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). UP is a product of PBA and DIS. It represents the spread of the built-up areas in the landscape. UP is expressed in urban permeation units per m2 of land (UPU/m2). The UP dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

Urban Permeation (UP) is a measure of the permeation of a landscape by built‑up areas; it describes the degree to which the landscape is permeated by patches of built-up area. It is calculated from the new urban sprawl metric "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP). Weighted Urban Proliferation is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. The WUP metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). UP is a product of PBA and DIS. It represents the spread of the built-up areas in the landscape. UP is expressed in urban permeation units per m2 of land (UPU/m2). The UP dataset is used in EEA's Urban Sprawl work indicating urbanisation impacts on the land system. It covers EEA39.

The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Besides WUP and its components, the other indicator was calculated: Utilisation Density (UD). UD measures the number of people living and working per km2 of built-up area.