A dataset of multi-level street-block divisions of 985 cities worldwide.

Abstract

Street-blocks, as basic geographical units for dividing urban space, are widely used in urban planning and statistics. However, the availability and quality of street-block data vary significantly across different countries or regions worldwide. While developed countries tend to have mature urban street-block division systems and corresponding public data, such data in most developing countries are often incomplete or non-existent. Even in countries with available data, the lack of consistent standards for street-block division causes difficulty in international comparative research. To address this gap, we are releasing a new open dataset: Multi-level Street-block Divisions of 985 Cities Worldwide (MSDCW), offering a logical, standardized, and user-friendly street-block division system for cities with the estimated population over 500,000 by Demographia from 142 countries or regions, with results at five spatial levels. Validation shows that compared with official datasets, MSDCW offers a reasonable division of urban street-blocks, and is therefore suitable as foundational data for related research. Additionally, researchers can use our method to generate their own street-block division datasets.