Frolking, S., Mahtta, R., Milliman, T. et al. Global urban structural growth shows a profound shift from spreading out to building up. Nat Cities

Objective:

• Generate a more complete picture of upward and outward urban growth dynamics, here grouped broad categories of slow growth, outward growth, upward growth and up-and-out growth

Case:

• Cities, China

Methodology:

Data Source

• Morphological urban areas
• WSF-evo BF data
• Building floor area: IEA

Findings:

• Many large cities show a shift from rapid growth in built fraction (BF) combined with slow growth in urban microwave backscatter (PR) to dominance by rapid PR and slow BF growth rates

• Megacities predominantly display vertical growth to occur first in the urban core are and then spread outward

• Increasing or decreasing BF or PR growth rates from one decade to the next, that is, acceleration or deceleration in building growth rate

• Most of the fast-up-and-out grid cells in the 2000s and 2010s were in China

Coding Reference:

• R