Settlement Mapping maps the settlement clusters in your region from an annual high-resolution pass, so you rank build priority from what has been built, not from census boundaries and a population grid.
You pull the enumeration areas, lay the population grid over them, then put your coverage footprint on top and read off what is uncovered. The boundaries date from the last census. The grid shares a count across its cells, so it shows people in a cell with no roofs and nobody where a village went up since.
So you open the base map beside it and fix the worst cells by hand before anything goes into the ranking, and the ranking goes into a bid.
You work from census enumeration areas or administrative boundaries, drawn to count people.
You send your region or bid boundary and get clusters inside it, wherever the buildings are, whatever the boundary lines say.
The population grid spreads census counts over cells, so a settlement is a patch of shaded cells.
Each settlement cluster is segmented and classified from imagery of what is on the ground, with a location and an outline.
Deciding which clusters count as a place worth serving.
A cell value or an area total, with a modelled population behind it.
A size for each cluster by built extent. It tells you how big the place is, not how many people live there.
New villages and extensions appear when the next census does, or when someone spots them on the base map.
A fresh pass every year, so growth since the last one is in the layer. Anything built after the pass waits for the next.
You overlay your coverage footprint on the grid and read off what falls outside it.
You do the same overlay on a cluster layer, and each cluster comes back flagged unserved or underserved against the footprint you supply.
The coverage footprint itself, and what counts as underserved.
A ranking built from grid cells, corrected by hand against imagery before it is frozen.
A ranked list of clusters across the region to start from, for your build-priority sheet or the bid's target-area schedule.
The final order, the site candidates, and the submission.
Points and polygons
The clusters in your region as a point and an outline, with an ID. Answers the finding-where-people-live row. It opens as a layer in your GIS next to the footprint.
Built extent per cluster
A size on each cluster from the area its buildings cover. Use it to tell a hamlet from a market town, not to count heads.
Flag per cluster
Each cluster marked against the coverage footprint you send us. Answers the finding-the-gaps row.
Table, region-wide
All the clusters in order of priority, with ID, location, size and flag. It is the start of your build-priority ranking, not the finished one.
Send the region and your footprint, we map the clusters, you get the layer before your ranking is frozen.
Your region or the bid boundary, and the coverage footprint if you want clusters flagged against it.
An annual high-resolution RGB satellite pass over the region, at 0.5 to 2 m.
Settlement clusters are segmented and classified from the imagery, then sized by built extent.
The cluster layer, flags and ranked list, for your GIS and planning tool. Timing is set against your planning cycle or the bid window.
Use the cluster layer in the step where you used to reconcile census boundaries and the grid. It becomes the base input to your build-priority ranking or the target-area list in a subsidy bid, on the same annual cycle as your planning.
Your radio planning, site candidates and the submission carry on as before.
No. It maps where buildings cluster. It does not estimate the population of a cluster, so keep your census numbers where a head count is required.
Take an area you already know well, or one you have corrected by hand against imagery. Compare our clusters with your corrected cells and judge whether the layer is good enough to plan from.
Annual. A cluster built since the last pass will not be in the layer until the next one.
No. You overlay your own coverage footprint, or send it with the region and we flag clusters against it.
Detection depends on the 0.5 to 2 m resolution. Isolated single buildings below what the pixel resolves can be missed.
It is an input to the bid. It is not a certified dataset, so check what your programme accepts.
It comes as a GIS layer and a table. We do not write into your tools directly. If you need a particular file format, say so when you get in touch.
Ownership and licence terms are written into the agreement before anything is ordered. If your legal team needs to review them, ask early.
The cost depends on the size of the region and the imagery source, and we quote for your region. We give no figure on this page.
Tell us the region or bid boundary and when the ranking has to be fixed. We will say whether the annual pass can meet that date.
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