Estimating urban areas: New insights from very high-resolution human settlement data

Our study investigates whether human settlement data derived from very high-resolution images provide unique understanding in the mapping of built-up areas and further the knowledge of human signatures at local levels. We selected two disparate geographies, Egypt and Taiwan, for which we analyzed four datasets representing human settlements at different spatial resolutions. Our analysis of urban morphology is based on aggregation, complexity, and contiguity of built-up areas on these settlement data and conducted at multiple spatial scales corresponding to the original resolution of the datasets. The results indicate that estimates of the total built-up area are severely misconceived, with most anomalies occurring along fringe areas. This work also illustrates the potential of high-resolution datasets to provide new insight into urban dynamics, through determining new measures of built-up area and identifying complex urban and peri-urban patterns that were previously undetected.