Mapping global urban areas using MODIS 500-m data: New methods and datasets based on ‘urban ecoregions’

Schneider, Annemarie; Friedl, M. A.; Potere, David

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2010.03.003

Cited by 622 publications

(412 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…1). The population records in 2005 were obtained from the World Urbanization Prospects (available at http://esa.un.org/ unup/), and urban size was estimated from Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) global map of urban extent (Schneider et al, 2009(Schneider et al, , 2010. Based on the population and area criteria above, 381 large cities were selected: 162 in Asia, 76 in Europe, 55 in Latin America, 55 in North America, 29 in Africa, and 4 in the remainder of the globe.…”

Section: Large Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An optimum city size? The scaling relationship for urban population and fine particulate (PM 2.5 ) concentration

Han

Zhou

Pickett

et al. 2016

Environmental Pollution

100

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a b s t r a c tWe utilize the distribution of PM 2.5 concentration and population in large cities at the global scale to illustrate the relationship between urbanization and urban air quality. We found: 1) The relationship varies greatly among continents and countries. Large cities in North America, Europe, and Latin America have better air quality than those in other continents, while those in China and India have the worst air quality.2) The relationships between urban population size and PM 2.5 concentration in large cities of different continents or countries were different. PM 2.5 concentration in large cities in North America, Europe, and Latin America showed little fluctuation or a small increasing trend, but those in Africa and India represent a "U" type relationship and in China represent an inverse "U" type relationship.3) The potential contribution of population to PM 2.5 concentration was higher in the large cities in China and India, but lower in other large cities.

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Section: Large Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An optimum city size? The scaling relationship for urban population and fine particulate (PM 2.5 ) concentration

Han

Zhou

Pickett

et al. 2016

Environmental Pollution

100

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“…Over half of humanity now live in cities [1], which cover less than 3% of the Earth's terrestrial surface [2]. Cities are often located in naturally species-rich regions [3][4][5] where native species are threatened by an array of anthropogenic factors, including habitat loss and species introductions [6] that present serious conservation challenges [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

et al. 2014

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Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common being Columba livia and Poa annua. The density of bird and plant species (the number of species per km 2 ) has declined substantially:& 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.on May 10, 2018 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from only 8% of native bird and 25% of native plant species are currently present compared with estimates of non-urban density of species. The current density of species in cities and the loss in density of species was best explained by anthropogenic features (landcover, city age) rather than by non-anthropogenic factors (geography, climate, topography). As urbanization continues to expand, efforts directed towards the conservation of intact vegetation within urban landscapes could support higher concentrations of both bird and plant species. Despite declines in the density of species, cities still retain endemic native species, thus providing opportunities for regional and global biodiversity conservation, restoration and education.

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“…Unfortunately, the existing maps exhibit a great deal of variability in how urban areas are characterized, evident from the areal estimates of urban land given by these maps (from 300,000 to 3 mil km 2 , Schneider et al, 2010). The definitional problems are twofold.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting change in urban areas at continental scales with MODIS data

Mertes

Schneider

Sulla‐Menashe

et al. 2015

Remote Sensing of Environment

153

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Abstract. Urbanization is one of the most important components of global environmentalchange, yet most of what we know about urban areas is at the local scale. Remote sensing of urban expansion across large areas provides information on the spatial and temporal patterns of growth that are essential for understanding differences in socioeconomic and political factors that spur different forms of development, as well the social, environmental, and climatic impacts that result. However, mapping urban expansion globally is challenging: urban areas have a small footprint compared to other land cover types, their features are small, they are heterogeneous in both material composition and configuration, and the form and rates of new development are often highly variable across locations. Here we demonstrate a new methodology for monitoring urban land expansion at continental to global scales using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The new method focuses on resolving the spectral and temporal ambiguities between urban/non-urban land and stable/changed areas by: (1) spatially constraining the study extent to known locations of urban land; (2) integrating multi-temporal data from multiple satellite data sources to classify ca 2010 urban extent; and (3) mapping newly built areas (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) within the 2010 urban land extent using a multi-temporal composite change detection approach based on MODIS 250 m annual maximum enhanced vegetation index (EVI). We test the method in 15 countries in East-Southeast Asia experiencing different rates and manifestations of urban expansion. A two-tiered accuracy assessment shows that the approach characterizes urban change across a variety of socicoeconomic/political and ecological/climatic conditions with good accuracy (70-91% overall accuracy by country, 69-89% by biome). The 250 m EVI data not only improve the classification results, but are capable of distinguishing between change and no-change areas in urban areas. Over 80% of ii the error in the change detection is related to human decision making or error propagation, rather than algorithm error. As such, these methods hold great potential for routine monitoring of urban change, as well as provide a consistent and up-to-date dataset on urban extent and expansion for a rapidly evolving region.

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Mapping global urban areas using MODIS 500-m data: New methods and datasets based on ‘urban ecoregions’

Cited by 622 publications

References 54 publications

An optimum city size? The scaling relationship for urban population and fine particulate (PM 2.5 ) concentration

An optimum city size? The scaling relationship for urban population and fine particulate (PM 2.5 ) concentration

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

Detecting change in urban areas at continental scales with MODIS data

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