Enhancing GHSL Population Grids Using Hexagon KH-9 Built-up Data: Refining 1970s Rural and Peri-Urban Distributions in Istanbul

Abstract

Accurate reconstruction of historical population distributions from the 1970s to the 1990s remains a significant limitation in global gridded population products due to coarse built-up data and limited census records. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to integrate declassified Hexagon KH-9 reconnaissance imagery into gridded population mapping. We enhance the GHS-POP framework by combining segmented built-up land cover from the HexaLCSeg dataset, derived from 1977 KH-9 imagery, with geocoded settlement-level census data to construct high-resolution historical population grids. Applied to Arnavutkoy and Cekmekoy in Istanbul for the period 1975-1990, we evaluate three dasymetric approaches, including a standard GHSL baseline, a Hexagon-enhanced workflow, and a fully integrated model incorporating local census records. Pixel-wise and zonal analyses show that GHSL misallocates populations to historically undeveloped regions, while the Hexagon-derived dataset substantially improves the representation of fragmented rural and peri-urban areas often missing from global products. Incorporating settlement-level LAU-2 census data further refines spatial population distribution. The results demonstrate that combining historical reconnaissance imagery with high-resolution census data improves the accuracy of historical population grids, and given the global coverage of declassified missions, this methodology offers significant potential for reconstructing historical population patterns in data-scarce regions worldwide.