IMF Working Papers

Satellite-Based Census of Residential Buildings: Application for Climate Risk Assessment

By Andinet Woldemichael, Iyke Maduako

September 20, 2024

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Format: Chicago

Andinet Woldemichael, and Iyke Maduako. "Satellite-Based Census of Residential Buildings: Application for Climate Risk Assessment", IMF Working Papers 2024, 204 (2024), accessed October 5, 2024, https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400289828.001

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Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Housing represents the largest asset and liability, in the form of mortgages, on most national balance sheet. For most households it is their largest investment, and when mortgages are required also represents the largest component of household debt. It is also directly tied to financial markets, both the mortgage market and insurance sector. Although many countries have a rich set of housing censuses and statistics, others have large data gap in this area and therefore struggle to formulate effective policies. This paper proposes an approach to construct a global census of residential buildings using opensource satellite data. Such a layer can be used to assess the extent these buildings are exposed to climate hazards and how their production and consumption, in turn, affect the climate. The approach we propose could be scaled globally, combining existing layers of building footprints, climate and socioeconomic data. It adds to the ongoing effort of compiling spatially explicit and granular climate indicators to better inform policies. As a case study, we compute selected indicators and estimate the extent of residential properties exposure to riverine flood risk for Kenya.

Subject: Climate change, Environment, Financial institutions, Housing, National accounts, Natural disasters, Population and demographics, Stocks

Keywords: Building Footprint, Census of buildings, Climate change, Climate Exposure, Global, Housing, Natural disasters, Stocks

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