Urban Expansion and Land Use Changes in Asia and Africa

This EUA special issue includes eight city-based articles on ‘Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Cities of the Global South’. These cities are case studies of a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supported Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) project on Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC). The work presented here is part of the stage two outputs of the SHLC study. Work from first stage of the SHLC project – City Profiles - was also published in an earlier special issue of EUA (10.2 2019). In this Prologue, we set out the background context for these analyses of urban land cover and land use changes and address the question: why is it important to study urban expansion/sprawl and land use changes in Asia and Africa? We first outline the recent trend of urbanization, expansion/sprawl and land use changes and their implications. We then discuss the limitation of planning in developing countries in regulating expansion and sprawl and emphasize the importance of research on land use changes and urban neighbourhoods.