Session 1: Measuring Recent Urban Expansion / The Urban Expansion Webinar Series /NYU Marron

Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” One indicator, “Ratio of Land Consumption Rate to Population Growth Rate,” calls for measuring the rate of urban expansion and comparing it to the rate of population growth, with a view to slowing and possibly reversing urban-density decline, a key strategy for mitigating climate change.

This webinar, co-hosted by the Urban Expansion program and the journal, Buildings and Cities,  will focus on three available methods for measuring this indicator, which combine census data and satellite-imagery analysis: contiguous built-up pixels, contiguous population pixels, and contiguous nighttime-light pixels. Three teams that use these methods will discuss their relative merits and progress towards the goal.