Land use efficiency of functional urban areas: Global pattern and evolution of development trajectories

The application of last-generation spatial data modelling integrating Earth Observation (EO), population data, economic data and other spatially explicit data allows new understanding of the sustainability of the global urbanization processes with unprecedented detail, consistency, and international comparability. In this study, the Sustainable Development Goal indicator SDG 11.3.1 (Land Use Efficiency: ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate) it is assessed globally for the first time at the level of Function Urban Areas (FUA), including the city and their commuting zone as inferred from statistical modelling of available spatial data. In this research, we utilize the boundaries of more than 9,000 FUAs to estimate SDG 11.3.1, between 1990 and 2015, using population and built-up area data extracted from the Global Human Settlement Layer. This analysis shows how, in the observed period, FUAs in the low income countries of the Global South evolved with rates of population growth surpassing the ones of land consumption. However, almost or more than half of the FUAs in all regions of the globe improved their Land Use Efficiency in recent years (2000 – 2015) with respect to the previous decade (1990 – 2000). Our study concludes that the spatial expansion of urban areas within FUA boundaries is reducing compactness of settlements, and that settlements belonging to a FUA are not more efficient than the ones outside FUAs.

SCHIAVINA Marcello;  MELCHIORRI Michele;  CARNEIRO FREIRE Sergio Manuel;  FLORIO Pietro;  EHRLICH Daniele;  TOMMASI Pierpaolo;  PESARESI Martino;  KEMPER Thomas; 

2022-03-29

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC126202

0197-3975 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397522000406,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126202,   

10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102543 (online),