Measuring and understanding global human settlements patterns and processes:. Innovation, progress and application

Human settlements - the places where people live and work - are rapidly evolving. Some of the processes driving the physical changes in human settlements are population and economic growth, rural-urban migration, and in-situ urban transformation that also include the envelopment of small settlements by larger ones and land-expansive development. In some parts of the world, particularly the global South, urbanization occurs at rates that generate unprecedented city sizes (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2017) . With increasing city size comes unprecedented challenges including air pollution, uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth, the need for improved efficiency in the transport sector as well as in fuel and energy consumption. Concomitant with these changes, small cities and towns, are expected to experience rates of growth that may be unparalleled historically. In high income countries, settlements’ spatial size may increase with little demographic influence due to increased demand for services or personal living space. Yet, even when settlements do not grow physically, their impact on the local and global environment may still increase, when change is associated with increased energy and material consumption and associated increased waste and pollution production, juxtaposing the requirements and quality of urban living with the challenges of urban and even global sustainability.

EHRLICH Daniele;  BALK Deborah;  SLIUZAS Richard; 

2020-07-20

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

JRC117087

1753-8947 (online),   

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17538947.2019.1630072,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC117087,   

10.1080/17538947.2019.1630072 (online),