Big Data Supported the Identification of Urban Land Efficiency in Eurasia by Indicator SDG 11.3.1

Chaopeng Li,Mingyi Du,Guoyin Cai

doi:10.3390/ijgi10020064

Abstract

Indicator 11.3.1 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11.3.1) was designed to test land-use efficiency, which was defined as the ratio of the land consumption rate (LCR) to the population growth rate (PGR), namely, LCRPGR. This study calculates the PGRs, LCRs, and LCRPGRs for 333 cities from 1990–2000 and 391 cities from 2000–2015 in four geographical divisions in Eurasia according to the method given by UN metadata. The results indicate that Europe and Japan have the lowest PGR and LCR, indicating that this region’s level of urbanization is the highest. South and Central Asia have the lowest values of LCRPGR, indicating relatively lower urban land supply during the measurement periods. Compared with the mean LCRPGR in a region, the average values from SDG 11.3.1 by different types of cities in a region can have more guiding significance for urban sustainable development. While paying attention to the urban land-use efficiency of mega and extra-large cities, more attention should be paid to the coordination relationship between urban land supply and population growth in large, medium, and small cities. Additionally, the method from UN metadata works well for most urban expansion cities but is not suitable for cities with small changes in urban populations.

Highlights

With the intensification of global urbanization, the proportion of the global urban population has increased from less than 30% in 1950 to 55% in 2018, and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 [1]
The values of SDG 11.3.1 for Eurasian cities in the years 1990, 2000, and 2015 were calculated according to the LCRPGR model given in Equation (3)
Through the analysis of the LCRPGR results, it was found that the LCRPGR in the calculation by the model provided by United Nations (UN) metadata has large positive values or small negative values

Summary

Introduction

With the intensification of global urbanization, the proportion of the global urban population has increased from less than 30% in 1950 to 55% in 2018, and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 [1]. The imbalance between urban land supply and population growth reduces the efficiency of land use, which negatively affects the sustainable development of a city. This has been proven by a project jointly completed by the African Union, African Development Bank, and Economic Commission on 120 cities. Their results showed that urban land cover grew by more than three times the increase in urban population [5].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion