Identifying, projecting, and evaluating informal urban expansion spatial patterns
Informal urban land expansion is produced through a diversity of social
and political transactions, yet ‘pixelizable’ data capturing these transactions
is commonly unavailable. Understanding informal urbanization
entails differentiating spatial patterns of informal settlement from formal
growth, associating such patterns with the social transactions that produce
them, and evaluating the social and environmental outcomes of
distinct settlement types. Demonstrating causality between distinct urban
spatial patterns and social-institutional processes requires both highresolution
spatial temporal time-series data of urban change and insights
into social transactions giving rise to these patterns. We demonstrate an
example of linking distinct spatial patterns of informal urban expansion to
the institutional processes each engenders in Mexico City. The approach
presented here can be applied across cases, potentially improving land
projection models in the rapidly urbanizing Global South, characterized by
high informality. We conclude with a research agenda to identify, project,
and evaluate informal urban expansion patterns.
- Award ID(s):
- 1657773
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10312962
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Land Use Science
- ISSN:
- 1747-423X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Publisher's Version of Record
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2021.2020919
