URBAN GROWTH IN DRYLANDS
The rapid urban expansion and its impacts on sustainability in global drylands
Researchers
Zhifeng Liu Brett Bryan Chunyang He
Summary
Understanding spatiotemporal urbanization is one of the key questions related to sustainable development in global drylands. However, urban expansion in global drylands has not been quantified and assessed effectively due to a lack of reliable data and methods. In this project, we aim to: (1) quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in global drylands from 1992 to 2016; (2) simulate the future pathways of global drylands’ urban expansion from 2016 to 2050 under different socioeconomic scenarios; (3) assess the impacts of urban expansion on sustainability on the basis of the water stress index across global drylands. The main findings from this project would provide informative foundations for achieving sustainable urbanization in drylands.