Resources

Map References

Download map references, which include additional information on 120 city maps.

Phases of the Study

The first phase of the study leading to the creation of this atlas involved the collection and analysis of satellite imagery and census data in the global sample of 120 cities. It was supported by the grant from the Research Committee of the World Bank to the Transport and Urban Development Department of the Bank. We are grateful to Christine Kessides of the Department for helping us obtain this grant. We are also grateful to Deborah Balk of the Center for International Earth Sciences Information Network (CIESIN) of Columbia University for providing us with the census data for the sample of cities. The team that worked on this phase of the study included Shlomo Angel, Stephen Sheppard and Daniel Civco as principal investigators, assisted by Jason Parent, Anna Chabaeva, Micah Perlin, Lucy Gitlin, and Robert Buckley.

The second phase of the study involved the administration of a survey by local consultants in each of the cities in the global sample of cities. The survey included questions on the latest census, on the status of metropolitan area planning, regulation and enforcement; on generals housing market conditions, on informal settlements, and on financial institutions that provide mortgage loans. This phase was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The team that worked on this phase of the study included Shlomo Angel, Stephen Sheppard and Daniel Civco as principal investigators, assisted by Lucy Gitlin, Alison Kraley, Jason Parent, and Anna Chabaeva. The local consultants that conducted the survey in each city are listed in The Persistent Decline in Urban Densities.

The third phase of the study involved the creation of a set of metrics for measuring urban spatial structure and a python script for calculating these metrics with ArcGIS software. The team that worked on this phase of the study included Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent and Daniel Civco. Part of the research in this phase was undertaken by Jason Parent within the University of Connecticut's Center for Land use Education and Research (CLEAR) and Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) under Grant NNL05AA14G "Incorporating NASA's Applied Sciences Data and Technologies into Local Government Decision Support in the National Application Areas of Coastal Management, Water Management, Ecologic Forecasting and Invasive Species", sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The fourth phase of the study involved the collection, geo-referencing, and digitizing of maps at 20-25 year intervals for the period 1800-2000 for a global sample of 30 cities; the analysis of census data for 20 U.S. cities for the 1910-2000 period and 65 cities for the 1950-2000 period; the statistical modeling of the results of the all phases; the preparation of three Lincoln Institute working papers; the drafting of the Policy Focus Report Making Room for a Planet of Cities, and the preparation of the Atlas of Urban Expansion.