The Atlas of Urban Expansion Shows How Cities Grow

The "Monitoring Global Urban Expansion Program" gathers and analyzes data on 200 cities around the world. The "Atlas of Urban Expansion" presents the program's preliminary results.

1 minute read

January 17, 2017, 1:00 PM PST

By Todd Litman


Los Angeles sprawl

Melpomene / Shutterstock

As of 2010, the world contained 4,231 cities with 100,000 or more people. The Monitoring Global Urban Expansion Program gathers and analyzes data on a sample of representative 200 cities. The Atlas of Urban Expansion presents the program's preliminary results.

This project by New York University, UN-Habitat the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and numerous collaborators is a comprehensive, ongoing research program to monitor quantitative and qualitative aspects of global urban expansion. The project used medium-resolution Landsat satellite imagery and census data to analyze how these cities grew between 1990 and 2014. Housing development and affordability surveys investigated how land use planning practices and development regulations affect urban fringe development patterns, home ownership patterns and housing affordability in these cities, based on data supplied by city-based researchers. The program has now completed its data collection phase and started evaluation and interpretation. 

According to to the Bible, God told humans to be fruitful and multiply. With satellite images and integrated GIS data sets, researchers can create time-series animations that show how cities are fulfilling these instructions. Cool!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017 in Atlas of Urban Expansion

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

People walking up and down stairs in New York City subway station.

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving

Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

April 18 - Scientific American

White public transit bus with bike on front bike rack in Nashville, Tennessee.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan

Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

April 18 - Bloomberg CityLab

An engineer controlling a quality of water ,aerated activated sludge tank at a waste water treatment plant.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding

The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.

April 18 - Smart Cities Dive