Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020
Built-up land has increased rapidly in recent decades, thus aggravating the competition for land between multiple uses. The increase in urban land can be decomposed into changes in population and changes in built-up land per person. Yet, it is unclear how this decomposition differs by country and ho...
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| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Geography and Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683924000580 |
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| author | Jasper van Vliet Hang Yang Vita Bakker Mengmeng Li |
| author_facet | Jasper van Vliet Hang Yang Vita Bakker Mengmeng Li |
| author_sort | Jasper van Vliet |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Built-up land has increased rapidly in recent decades, thus aggravating the competition for land between multiple uses. The increase in urban land can be decomposed into changes in population and changes in built-up land per person. Yet, it is unclear how this decomposition differs by country and how this decomposition changes over time. Moreover, we don’t know whether these changes affect the inequality in built-up land per capita. Here, we analyze the global distribution of built-up land per capita in the year 2020, as well as the changes therein between 1985 and 2020. We find that built-up land per capita in 2020 differs by an order of magnitude between countries, ranging from 15 m2 per person in Ethiopia to 734 m2 per person in Australia. Moreover, we find a wide range of different change trajectories, including both increases and decreases in built-up land per capita and in total population. As the total area of urban land increased in all countries, decreases in urban land consumption reflect a situation where the population increases faster than the total amount of urban land. We also find a large inequality in urban land consumption across countries, as indicated by a Gini index of 0.47 in 1985, decreasing only slightly to 0.45 in 2020. These findings suggest the need for a regionally differentiated approach to reduce urban land take, focusing first on mitigating further increases in those countries that already have a high urban land consumption. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3501659b4e354804943388fca8c5b79b |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2666-6839 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geography and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-3501659b4e354804943388fca8c5b79b2025-08-20T01:57:52ZengElsevierGeography and Sustainability2666-68392024-12-015454154710.1016/j.geosus.2024.07.001Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020Jasper van Vliet0Hang Yang1Vita Bakker2Mengmeng Li3Institute for Environmental studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1111, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Corresponding author.Institute for Environmental studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1111, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the NetherlandsInstitute for Environmental studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1111, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the NetherlandsSchool of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, ChinaBuilt-up land has increased rapidly in recent decades, thus aggravating the competition for land between multiple uses. The increase in urban land can be decomposed into changes in population and changes in built-up land per person. Yet, it is unclear how this decomposition differs by country and how this decomposition changes over time. Moreover, we don’t know whether these changes affect the inequality in built-up land per capita. Here, we analyze the global distribution of built-up land per capita in the year 2020, as well as the changes therein between 1985 and 2020. We find that built-up land per capita in 2020 differs by an order of magnitude between countries, ranging from 15 m2 per person in Ethiopia to 734 m2 per person in Australia. Moreover, we find a wide range of different change trajectories, including both increases and decreases in built-up land per capita and in total population. As the total area of urban land increased in all countries, decreases in urban land consumption reflect a situation where the population increases faster than the total amount of urban land. We also find a large inequality in urban land consumption across countries, as indicated by a Gini index of 0.47 in 1985, decreasing only slightly to 0.45 in 2020. These findings suggest the need for a regionally differentiated approach to reduce urban land take, focusing first on mitigating further increases in those countries that already have a high urban land consumption.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683924000580Urban expansionHuman settlementsInequalityUrban densificationSDG 11Sustainable development |
| spellingShingle | Jasper van Vliet Hang Yang Vita Bakker Mengmeng Li Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 Geography and Sustainability Urban expansion Human settlements Inequality Urban densification SDG 11 Sustainable development |
| title | Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| title_full | Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| title_fullStr | Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| title_short | Global inequality in built-up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| title_sort | global inequality in built up land per capita and its change trajectories between 1985 and 2020 |
| topic | Urban expansion Human settlements Inequality Urban densification SDG 11 Sustainable development |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683924000580 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jaspervanvliet globalinequalityinbuiltuplandpercapitaanditschangetrajectoriesbetween1985and2020 AT hangyang globalinequalityinbuiltuplandpercapitaanditschangetrajectoriesbetween1985and2020 AT vitabakker globalinequalityinbuiltuplandpercapitaanditschangetrajectoriesbetween1985and2020 AT mengmengli globalinequalityinbuiltuplandpercapitaanditschangetrajectoriesbetween1985and2020 |