Urban Expansion 2050

This project visualizes projected global urban land expansion through 2050. Urban populations are expected to increase by 2–3 billion by mid-century, requiring massive expansion of built-up areas. Understanding where and how this growth will occur is critical for planning climate adaptation strategies.

The projections are based on the research published in:

Kangning Huang, Xia Li, Xiaoping Liu, Karen C. Seto (2019). “Projecting global urban land expansion and heat island intensification through 2050.” Environmental Research Letters, 14(11): 114037.

The underlying data is available as an open database on WRI Resource Watch.