Land use efficiency of functional urban areas: Global pattern and evolution of development trajectories. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schiavina, Marcello; Melchiorri, Michele; Freire, Sergio; Florio, Pietro; Ehrlich, Daniele; Tommasi, Pierpaolo; Pesaresi, Martino; Kemper, Thomas
• Is Part Of: Habitat international. Volume 123(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: SDG 11.3.1 -- GHSL -- Land consumption -- Urbanisation -- Metropolitan areas; AAPDEA Abstract Achieved Density in Expansion Area -- AOI Area of interest -- BpC Built-up area per capita -- EC European Commission -- FAO Food and Agriculture Organization -- FUA Functional Urban Area -- GDP Gross Domestic Product -- GHS-BUILT GHSL built-up area spatial grid -- GHS-FUA GHSL FUA layer -- GHS-POP GHSL population spatial grid -- GHS-SMOD GHSL settlement classification spatial grid -- GIS Geospatial Information System -- GSARS Global Strategy on Agricultural and Rural Statistics -- HIC High-Income Countries -- LCR Land Consumption Rate -- LCRPGR Land Use Efficiency indicator -- LIC Low Income Countries -- LMC Lower-Middle Income Countries -- LN Natural logarithm -- LUE Land Use Efficiency -- OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development -- PGR Population Growth Rate -- UMC Upper-Middle Income Countries -- UN United Nations -- UNDESA United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Human settlements -- Periodicals; 307
• DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102543
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0197-3975

Abstract

Abstract: The application of last-generation spatial data modelling, integrating Earth Observation, population, economic and other spatially explicit data, enables insights into the sustainability of the global urbanisation processes with unprecedented detail, consistency, and international comparability. In this study, the land use efficiency indicator, as developed in the Sustainable Development Goals, is assessed globally for the first time at the level of Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). Each FUA includes the city and its commuting zone as inferred from statistical modelling of available spatial data. FUAs represent the economic area of influence of each urban centre. Hence, the analysis of land consumption within their boundary has significance in the fields of spatial planning and policy analyses as well as many other research areas. We utilize the boundaries of more than 9, 000 FUAs to estimate the land use efficiency between 1990 and 2015, by using population and built-up area data extracted from the Global Human Settlement Layer. This analysis shows how, in the observed period, FUAs in low-income countries of the Global South evolved with rates of population growth surpassing the ones of land consumption. However, in almost all regions of the globe, more than half of the FUAs 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 located within FUAs do not display higher land use efficiency than those outside FUAs. Highlights: Land Use Efficiency (SDG 11.3.1) is assessed in all FUAs of the world. FUAs in the Global South show population growing faster than land consumption. Development trajectories in FUAs show an improvement of efficiency in recent years. Settlements within FUA commuting areas are not more efficient than those outside. The proportion of urban centre population does not imply higher efficiency of the FUA.