Remote Sensing Identification and Analysis of Global Building Electrification (2012–2023)

Abstract

The accurate collection of spatially distributed electrification data is considered of great importance for tracking progress toward target 7.1 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the formulation of policy decisions on electricity access issues. However, the existing datasets face severe limitations in terms of temporal discontinuity and restricted threshold selection. To effectively address these issues, in this work, an improved remote sensing method was proposed to monitor global building electrification. By integrating global land cover data, built-up area data, and annual NPP/VIIRS nighttime light images, a regional threshold method was used to identify electrified and unelectrified areas yearly, generating a global building electrification dataset for 2012–2023. Based on our analysis, we found the following: (1) The five assessment metrics of the product—Accuracy (0.9856), Precision (0.9734), Recall (0.9984), F1-score (0.9858), and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (0.9715)—all exceed 0.9, demonstrating that our method achieves high reliability in identifying electrified buildings. (2) In 2023, 91.88% of global building areas were electrified, with the unelectrified buildings being predominantly located in rural regions of developing countries. (3) Between 2012 and 2023, the global electrified building area increased by 2.4199 million km2, with rural areas experiencing a faster growth rate than town areas. The annual reduction rate of unelectrified building area was 0.62%. However, to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, this rate must nearly double. (4) External factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather events, and armed conflicts significantly affect global electrification progress, with developing countries being particularly vulnerable. In our work, remote sensing methodologies and datasets for monitoring electrification trends were refined, and a detailed spatial representation of unelectrified areas worldwide was provided.