64th ISI World Statistics Congress - Ottawa, Canada

64th ISI World Statistics Congress - Ottawa, Canada

Contiguously Settled Areas: New Urban Boundaries for Measuring Urban Expansion

Author

LA
Lauren Allen

Co-author

  • M
    Mark Henry

Conference

64th ISI World Statistics Congress - Ottawa, Canada

Format: IPS Abstract

Session: IPS 308 - Estimating flows of ecosystem services and benefits to society in urban ecosystems

Wednesday 19 July 2 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. (Canada/Eastern)

Abstract

Settled areas represent the locations where people live and work. While they account for a small percentage of the overall land area in Canada, settled areas represent the main places where people experience the environment around them. The expansion of settled areas has implications for the surrounding environment and ecosystems. While the permanent conversion of land from natural to settled ecosystems provides benefits to humans in terms of providing spaces to live and work, there are environmental trade-offs. These include the loss and fragmentation of forests and the loss of high-quality agricultural land, as well as a loss in the associated services from these ecosystem types. To determine the extent to which urban expansion is occurring and how the physical urban form is changing, it is necessary to first delineate the existing boundaries of settled areas. Existing representations of urban areas often overbound the physical urban area; that is, they include other land covers and uses, such as forest and agriculture, that occur on the periphery of the main settled area. Conversely, administrative and statistical boundaries do not always capture settled areas that are contiguous with the core urban area. Data derived from earth observation (EO) can provide detailed, comprehensive, consistent and up-to-date information on the spatial extent of settled areas that is not subject to the limitations associated with administrative or statistical boundaries. Statistics Canada is currently developing new urban area boundaries called “Contiguously Settled Areas”, which will complement existing administrative and statistical representations of settled areas. The Contiguously Settled Area boundaries will use EO-derived land cover data to delineate settled areas morphologically based on their physical footprint on the surface of the earth. Since the boundaries will more closely represent the outer boundaries of settled areas, they will be useful for tracking urban expansion over time. They will also be useful for other types of urban analyses, such as informing where users of ecosystem services are located and characterizing the services available to people based on the ecosystem characteristics around them.