Beijing: land change, 2016–2025
Two Sentinel-2 satellite images of a 20 km square around Beijing, from 2016-07-02 and 2025-07-17, were classified by a ResNet18 model trained on EuroSAT. Every 640 m cell is put in one of four land-cover groups, and the two dates are compared cell by cell.
- Before
- 2016-07-02
- After
- 2025-07-17
- Area analysed
- 394 km²
Change
+74 km²net change in built-up area
In cells the model is sure of on both dates (confidence ≥ 0.8): 34.4 km² became built-up, 39.3 km² changed in total.
Land cover on both dates
| 2016 | 2025 | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture decreased | 20.6% | 0.1% | -20.5 |
| Natural vegetation increased | 2.4% | 4.1% | +1.7 |
| Built-up increased | 76.8% | 95.6% | +18.8 |
| Water no notable change | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0 |
Largest transitions (confident cells)
- Agriculture → Built-up32.8 km²
- Built-up → Natural vegetation2.9 km²
- Natural vegetation → Built-up1.6 km²
- Agriculture → Natural vegetation1.6 km²
- Agriculture → Water0.4 km²
Limits
- Every value shown is a model estimate, not a measurement.
- Areas are not measurements but approximations counted from cells. The figures are always computed on 640 m cells; the scale only changes how the map is drawn.
- The model was trained on European images only; results for places tagged "experimental" are less reliable.
- Clouds, shadows and seasonal differences can show change that is not there.