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Prof. Dr. Karen Seto
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA

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0 Urbanization and Sustainability
0 Human dimensions of global change
0 Comparative urbanization dynamics in Asia
0 Monitoring, modeling, and forecasting urban expansion
0 Remote sensing of land-use and land-cover change

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Remote sensing of land-use and land-cover change

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Journal article
Published: 03 January 2021 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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The interactive dynamics in the food, water, and energy system as a nexus (FWEN) are critical to the sustainable development of global cities, and they can be mediated by green and blue infrastructure (GBI) in the urban area. Here we provide a comprehensive literature review to examine how GBI affects FWEN in urban centers, an area which is currently understudied. In order to do this, we undertake a systematic review of the literature using a meta-analytic approach and topic modelling. Based on our synthesis, we develop a conceptual framework of the key links between urban GBI and FWEN and the direction and magnitude of the relationship. We found that GBIs can benefit food supply, energy saving, and climate change mitigation but at a price of food safety and water contamination. Well-designed urban construction can help curb the negative effects. Therefore, we need to make deliberate and integrative policy to link GBI with each element in urban FWEN. Moreover, the focus of studies on GBIFWEN links is also heterogeneous across cities: urban agriculture and food security are priorities in cities located in Africa and Asia as well as in lower income and larger cities (but not metropolitan areas), while the cooling effect of green space has been a focus for cities of middle or high income. Finally, current research focuses on isolated analysis, lacking integrated studies needed for decision making supporting tools. While isolated analyses lead to connectivity failures and can result in adverse impacts, integrated analyses can identify interdependencies of environmental resources between parts of a cycle and across different scales, which can increase resource efficiency and minimize environmental degradation. Therefore, our key findings point out the importance of linking the effects of GBI on each component of FWEN in both research and policy making.

ACS Style

Rodrigo A. Bellezoni; Fanxin Meng; Pan He; Karen C. Seto. Understanding and conceptualizing how urban green and blue infrastructure affects the food, water, and energy nexus: A synthesis of the literature. Journal of Cleaner Production 2021, 289, 125825 .

AMA Style

Rodrigo A. Bellezoni, Fanxin Meng, Pan He, Karen C. Seto. Understanding and conceptualizing how urban green and blue infrastructure affects the food, water, and energy nexus: A synthesis of the literature. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021; 289 ():125825.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Rodrigo A. Bellezoni; Fanxin Meng; Pan He; Karen C. Seto. 2021. "Understanding and conceptualizing how urban green and blue infrastructure affects the food, water, and energy nexus: A synthesis of the literature." Journal of Cleaner Production 289, no. : 125825.

Review
Published: 29 March 2020 in Remote Sensing of Environment
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Historically, change detection reviews have examined and categorized algorithms based on their techniques for the remote sensing community. Here, we synthesize urban land change algorithms by the types of information they provide to a diverse and growing set of user communities. Two goals of the paper are first to synthesize past and current change detection studies to examine urban land change to help users of remote sensing algorithms understand and navigate the vast variety of available methods, and second to identify gaps in knowledge for the urban remote sensing community. We analyzed 644 peer-reviewed research papers published in English-language journals and conducted a systematic review of urban land change algorithms. All papers included in our study focus on urban land change; studies that concentrate on single-date urban classification or mapping for one point in time without an explicit urban land change component are not included in this analysis. The review showed five key results and knowledge gaps. First, most urban change detection algorithms are being developed and applied for only a few regions, with 75% of studies focused on high or upper-middle-income countries and the majority of these on China or the United States. This suggests a major gap in geographic coverage as well as the need for more studies on cities in low and lower-middle-income countries. Second, the results show that 41% of the algorithms have been developed or applied for cities of over 5 million inhabitants. This focus on large cities is problematic given that only 11% of the world's urban population lives in cities with populations greater than 5 million and that most future urban growth will occur in small- and medium-sized towns and cities with populations of fewer than 1 million people. Third, our analysis shows that 62% of the studies use three or fewer time points to measure urban land change with an average study length of 17 years. Since rapidly growing urban areas are highly dynamic, this suggests that existing algorithms using only a few time points are likely missing urban transitions that can only be captured with high temporal frequency analysis. Fourth, we find that urban expansion is the most commonly monitored type of urban land change. Comparatively fewer studies characterized intra-urban change or three-dimensional structural change. Fifth and finally, the results show that an overwhelming majority—87%—of all studies identify only one urban class, highlighting a need for more studies that distinguish intra-urban variation and differentiate multiple urban classes. Our analysis shows that it is very difficult—nearly impossible—to compare across algorithms. Thus, for users of urban land change information, it is difficult to navigate the literature and know which algorithms are most appropriate for a particular use. Taken together, this points to the need for improved reproducibility, replicability, and comparability of studies in order to help harmonize urban land change information across regions and countries. This is especially important given the growing user communities of urban land change products and analysis, especially from policy and practice.

ACS Style

Meredith Reba; Karen C. Seto. A systematic review and assessment of algorithms to detect, characterize, and monitor urban land change. Remote Sensing of Environment 2020, 242, 111739 .

AMA Style

Meredith Reba, Karen C. Seto. A systematic review and assessment of algorithms to detect, characterize, and monitor urban land change. Remote Sensing of Environment. 2020; 242 ():111739.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Meredith Reba; Karen C. Seto. 2020. "A systematic review and assessment of algorithms to detect, characterize, and monitor urban land change." Remote Sensing of Environment 242, no. : 111739.

Journal article
Published: 12 March 2020 in Global Food Security
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Urban consumption of processed and fast foods is a challenge to nutrition security. Observed differences in urban versus rural consumption are commonly attributed to higher income levels in urban areas. Yet, there is still no clear understanding of why and how urban dwellers consume differently. Using India as a case study, we analyze expenditures on processed foods and consumption of food away from home (FAFH) of urban, metropolitan, and rural populations using OLS regression models. We show that urban households spend more on processed foods and consume more FAFH than rural households. Most of this difference can be attributed to differing socio-economic and demographic factors, such as higher income, or smaller urban household size. However, even after controlling for these factors, we find differences not only between rural and urban areas but also between different urban areas: households in large metropolitan areas consume more than households in smaller non-metropolitan urban areas. These inter-urban variations suggest that the dichotomy of urban versus rural consumption does not adequately capture the full spectrum of food consumption complexities. Our findings indicate that urbanization is affecting how people consume food beyond shaping their socio-economic and demographic status. We also highlight the need to account for the role of urbanization—beyond an urban-rural dichotomy—when addressing the challenges associated with changing food consumption patterns.

ACS Style

C. Bren D’Amour; B. Pandey; M. Reba; S. Ahmad; F. Creutzig; K.C. Seto. Urbanization, processed foods, and eating out in India. Global Food Security 2020, 25, 100361 .

AMA Style

C. Bren D’Amour, B. Pandey, M. Reba, S. Ahmad, F. Creutzig, K.C. Seto. Urbanization, processed foods, and eating out in India. Global Food Security. 2020; 25 ():100361.

Chicago/Turabian Style

C. Bren D’Amour; B. Pandey; M. Reba; S. Ahmad; F. Creutzig; K.C. Seto. 2020. "Urbanization, processed foods, and eating out in India." Global Food Security 25, no. : 100361.

Letter
Published: 01 December 2019 in Environmental Research Letters
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Urban form in both two- (2D) and three-dimensions (3D) has significant impacts on local and global environments. Here we developed the largest global dataset characterizing 2D and 3D urban growth for 478 cities with populations of one million or larger. Using remote sensing data from the SeaWinds scatterometer for 2001 and 2009, and the Global Human Settlement Layer for 2000 and 2014, we applied a cluster analysis and found five urban growth typologies: stabilized, outward, mature upward, budding outward, upward and outward. Budding outward is the dominant typology worldwide, per the largest total area. Cities characterized by upward and outward growth are few in number and concentrated primarily in China and South Korea, where there has been a large increase in high-rises during the study period. With the exception of East Asia, cities within a geographic region exhibit remarkably similar patterns of urban growth. Our results show that every city exhibits multiple urban growth typologies concurrently. Thus, while it is possible to describe a city by its dominant urban growth typology, a more accurate and comprehensive characterization would include some combination of the five typologies. The implications of the results for urban sustainability are multi-fold. First, the results suggest that there is considerable opportunity to shape future patterns of urbanization, given that most of the new urban growth is nascent and low magnitude outward expansion. Second, the clear geographic patterns and wide variations in the physical form of urban growth, within country and city, suggest that markets, national and subnational policies, including the absence of, can shape how cities grow. Third, the presence of different typologies within each city suggests the need for differentiated strategies for different parts of a single city. Finally, the new urban forms revealed in this analysis provide a first glimpse into the carbon lock-in of recently constructed energy-demanding infrastructure of urban settlements.

ACS Style

Richa Mahtta; Anjali Mahendra; Karen C Seto. Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+. Environmental Research Letters 2019, 14, 124077 .

AMA Style

Richa Mahtta, Anjali Mahendra, Karen C Seto. Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+. Environmental Research Letters. 2019; 14 (12):124077.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Richa Mahtta; Anjali Mahendra; Karen C Seto. 2019. "Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+." Environmental Research Letters 14, no. 12: 124077.

Commentary
Published: 01 October 2019 in One Earth
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Urban land use has impacts spread across time and place. How urban areas are built and configured in the coming decades will have long-term implications on the environment and the lives of billions of people. A systems approach that emphasizes the importance of science and the relevance of policy to understanding urban land use is vital to building a sustainable future.

ACS Style

Karen C. Seto; Bhartendu Pandey. Urban Land Use: Central to Building a Sustainable Future. One Earth 2019, 1, 168 -170.

AMA Style

Karen C. Seto, Bhartendu Pandey. Urban Land Use: Central to Building a Sustainable Future. One Earth. 2019; 1 (2):168-170.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Karen C. Seto; Bhartendu Pandey. 2019. "Urban Land Use: Central to Building a Sustainable Future." One Earth 1, no. 2: 168-170.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2018 in Biological Conservation
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Earth is undergoing unprecedented urban growth, with urban areas forecasted to increase by 120 million ha from 2000 to 2030, impacting natural habitat. However, to date it is unclear where conservation investments can best mitigate biodiversity loss due to urban expansion into natural habitat. Here we combine spatially-explicit global forecasts of urban expansion, information on terrestrial vertebrate endemism, and data on current land cover and protected areas to define conservation priorities. Globally, 13% of endemics are in ecoregions under high threat from urban expansion. Biodiversity losses are highly spatially concentrated, with 78% of endemics threatened by urban growth occurring in just 30 priority ecoregions (4% of all ecoregions). Natural habitat protection of 4.1–8.0 million ha, <7% of total forecasted urban expansion, would be needed in these priority ecoregions. As an added benefit, such protection would also reduce GHG emissions by an amount worth up to 87.6 billion USD.

ACS Style

Robert I. McDonald; Burak Güneralp; Chun-Wei Huang; Karen C. Seto; Mingde You. Conservation priorities to protect vertebrate endemics from global urban expansion. Biological Conservation 2018, 224, 290 -299.

AMA Style

Robert I. McDonald, Burak Güneralp, Chun-Wei Huang, Karen C. Seto, Mingde You. Conservation priorities to protect vertebrate endemics from global urban expansion. Biological Conservation. 2018; 224 ():290-299.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Robert I. McDonald; Burak Güneralp; Chun-Wei Huang; Karen C. Seto; Mingde You. 2018. "Conservation priorities to protect vertebrate endemics from global urban expansion." Biological Conservation 224, no. : 290-299.

Articles
Published: 04 May 2018 in Journal of Land Use Science
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Urban land use change is one of the most impactful land transitions on the biosphere, resulting in land conversion, habitat loss, and changes in biogeochemical cycling, climate, and hydrology. Thus, understanding it is essential for global change research. Most land change detection algorithms assume linear changes. However, urban land-use changes are often nonlinear, i.e., follow multiple transitions over time. We propose a new methodology to identify multiple transitions due to urbanization with high frequency remote sensing time series. We design, implement, and evaluate a time series approach to detect the timing of urban conversion of agricultural land in India. Results show an overall accuracy of 82.11% in detecting change timing when the algorithm is applied to MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series. The proposed algorithm yields better results with raw time series than filtered time series. We discuss the usefulness of our algorithm to understand nonlinear land transitions.

ACS Style

Bhartendu Pandey; Qingling Zhang; Karen C. Seto. Time series analysis of satellite data to characterize multiple land use transitions: a case study of urban growth and agricultural land loss in India. Journal of Land Use Science 2018, 13, 221 -237.

AMA Style

Bhartendu Pandey, Qingling Zhang, Karen C. Seto. Time series analysis of satellite data to characterize multiple land use transitions: a case study of urban growth and agricultural land loss in India. Journal of Land Use Science. 2018; 13 (3):221-237.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bhartendu Pandey; Qingling Zhang; Karen C. Seto. 2018. "Time series analysis of satellite data to characterize multiple land use transitions: a case study of urban growth and agricultural land loss in India." Journal of Land Use Science 13, no. 3: 221-237.

Journal article
Published: 01 May 2018 in Landscape and Urban Planning
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Mitigating the effects of urban expansion on habitat with high conservation value depends largely on national and sub-national governance that can effectively shape urban growth. This paper is the first study to map urban-caused biodiversity decline and governance. The central goal of this paper is to identify where and how weak governance and future urban expansion may combine to lead to the decline of biodiversity. We identify four categories of countries based on the level of biodiversity impact from urban expansion and governance capacity, as expressed in the Worldwide Governance Indicators. We review the literature of case studies to understand how governance capacity modulates the impact of urban expansion on biodiversity. Our results show that if predicted urban expansion continues, by 2030, more than two-thirds of all species impacted by urban expansion will occur in countries with low levels of political stability or regulatory quality, two factors which were identified as most important in the ability of land governance to mitigate urban threats on biodiversity. Our results suggest that land-use planning cannot be the sole solution for preventing urban-caused global biodiversity decline, but rather that different categories of countries need contrasting conservation strategies. Countries that have high potential biodiversity impact and low land governance capacity require short-term conservation strategies which facilitate public participation, as well as international aid and development to increase governance capacity. Furthermore, enhanced coordination across different decision-making levels is important so that strategies at a single scale do not counterbalance efforts at other levels.

ACS Style

Chun-Wei Huang; Robert I. McDonald; Karen C. Seto. The importance of land governance for biodiversity conservation in an era of global urban expansion. Landscape and Urban Planning 2018, 173, 44 -50.

AMA Style

Chun-Wei Huang, Robert I. McDonald, Karen C. Seto. The importance of land governance for biodiversity conservation in an era of global urban expansion. Landscape and Urban Planning. 2018; 173 ():44-50.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chun-Wei Huang; Robert I. McDonald; Karen C. Seto. 2018. "The importance of land governance for biodiversity conservation in an era of global urban expansion." Landscape and Urban Planning 173, no. : 44-50.

Editorial
Published: 01 February 2018 in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
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ACS Style

Diana Ürge-Vorsatz; Karen C Seto. Editorial Overview: 1.5°C Climate change and urban areas. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2018, 30, 1 .

AMA Style

Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Karen C Seto. Editorial Overview: 1.5°C Climate change and urban areas. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 2018; 30 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Diana Ürge-Vorsatz; Karen C Seto. 2018. "Editorial Overview: 1.5°C Climate change and urban areas." Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 30, no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 08 January 2018 in Nature Sustainability
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ACS Style

Michele Acuto; Susan Parnell; Karen C. Seto. Building a global urban science. Nature Sustainability 2018, 1, 2 -4.

AMA Style

Michele Acuto, Susan Parnell, Karen C. Seto. Building a global urban science. Nature Sustainability. 2018; 1 (1):2-4.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Michele Acuto; Susan Parnell; Karen C. Seto. 2018. "Building a global urban science." Nature Sustainability 1, no. 1: 2-4.

Accepted manuscript
Published: 20 October 2017 in Environmental Research Letters
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Africa, a continent exceptionally rich in biodiversity, is rapidly urbanizing. Africa's urbanization is manifest in the growth of its megacities as well as that of its smaller towns and cities. The conservation planning and practice will increasingly need to account for direct and indirect impacts of the continent's urbanization. The objective of our study is to pinpoint the outstanding challenges and opportunities afforded by the growing cities on the continent to the conservation goals and practices. While these issues have previously been addressed in many studies they tended to focus on specific issues. Here, we provide a synthesis of these supported by new analysis. Urban areas, growing both in population and in land cover, pose threats to the integrity of the continent's ecosystems and biodiversity but their growth also create opportunities for conservation. The burgeoning urban populations, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, increase the strain on already insufficient infrastructure and bring new governance challenges. Yet, Africa's ecosystems can serve as foundations for green infrastructure to serve the needs of its urban populations while safeguarding fragile biodiversity. Overall, while worsening social problems overshadow the concerns for biodiversity there are also promising initiatives to bring these concerns into the fold to address social, institutional, and ecological challenges that emerge with the continued urbanization of the continent.

ACS Style

Burak Güneralp; Shuaib Lwasa; Hillary Masundire; Susan Parnell; Karen C Seto. Urbanization in Africa: challenges and opportunities for conservation. Environmental Research Letters 2017, 13, 015002 .

AMA Style

Burak Güneralp, Shuaib Lwasa, Hillary Masundire, Susan Parnell, Karen C Seto. Urbanization in Africa: challenges and opportunities for conservation. Environmental Research Letters. 2017; 13 (1):015002.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Burak Güneralp; Shuaib Lwasa; Hillary Masundire; Susan Parnell; Karen C Seto. 2017. "Urbanization in Africa: challenges and opportunities for conservation." Environmental Research Letters 13, no. 1: 015002.

Introduction
Published: 07 August 2017 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Sustainability science is use-inspired fundamental research that links knowledge to action such that meeting the needs of society can be balanced with sustaining the life support systems of the planet (1, 2). Nowhere is this action-oriented research needed more than in urban areas that are now home to more than half of the world’s population, generating about 80% of the world’s economy (3) as well as over 70% of global energy use and global energy-related emissions (4). Depending on the literature and perspectives taken, urbanization and cities will be either key components to the transition to sustainability or major threats to sustainability. The dichotomy in views is partly a result of the wide range in urban conditions and uneven urbanization processes around the world. Urban areas can be sites of innovation and production of knowledge and wealth, and provide widespread access to employment, education, sanitation, and modern energy, but they can also have high levels of pollution, social exclusion, environmental degradation, and cause unintended consequences outside of the urban boundaries; all of these outcomes could occur simultaneously through the same urbanization process. A number of urban transitions are underway, several of which involve: the change from a predominantly rural and lower-density population to an urban and higher-density living; the shift in economies from agrarian to manufacturing and services, finance, and technology; the increasing resource intensity of energy, materials, and water required to produce a unit of good or service; the lasting imprint and spatial configuration of built environments and their requisite infrastructures; the subtle impact on a broad spectrum of biotic interactions and the significant threats to biodiversity; the increasing complexity and reach of urban institutions and governance to enforce the rule of law and maintain civil society; and the transition from individually demarcated cities and towns to the …

ACS Style

Karen C. Seto; Jay S. Golden; Marina Alberti; B. L. Turner. Sustainability in an urbanizing planet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2017, 114, 8935 -8938.

AMA Style

Karen C. Seto, Jay S. Golden, Marina Alberti, B. L. Turner. Sustainability in an urbanizing planet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2017; 114 (34):8935-8938.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Karen C. Seto; Jay S. Golden; Marina Alberti; B. L. Turner. 2017. "Sustainability in an urbanizing planet." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 34: 8935-8938.

Journal article
Published: 01 June 2017 in Remote Sensing of Environment
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Bhartendu Pandey; Qingling Zhang; Karen C. Seto. Comparative evaluation of relative calibration methods for DMSP/OLS nighttime lights. Remote Sensing of Environment 2017, 195, 67 -78.

AMA Style

Bhartendu Pandey, Qingling Zhang, Karen C. Seto. Comparative evaluation of relative calibration methods for DMSP/OLS nighttime lights. Remote Sensing of Environment. 2017; 195 ():67-78.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bhartendu Pandey; Qingling Zhang; Karen C. Seto. 2017. "Comparative evaluation of relative calibration methods for DMSP/OLS nighttime lights." Remote Sensing of Environment 195, no. : 67-78.

Journal article
Published: 01 November 2016 in Annual Review of Environment and Resources
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ACS Style

Karen C. Seto; Steven Davis; Ronald B. Mitchell; Eleanor C. Stokes; Gregory Unruh; Diana Ürge-Vorsatz. Carbon Lock-In: Types, Causes, and Policy Implications. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 2016, 41, 425 -452.

AMA Style

Karen C. Seto, Steven Davis, Ronald B. Mitchell, Eleanor C. Stokes, Gregory Unruh, Diana Ürge-Vorsatz. Carbon Lock-In: Types, Causes, and Policy Implications. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 2016; 41 (1):425-452.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Karen C. Seto; Steven Davis; Ronald B. Mitchell; Eleanor C. Stokes; Gregory Unruh; Diana Ürge-Vorsatz. 2016. "Carbon Lock-In: Types, Causes, and Policy Implications." Annual Review of Environment and Resources 41, no. 1: 425-452.

Research article
Published: 18 July 2016 in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
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Urban areas contribute to about 75% of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions and are a primary driver of climate change. If greenhouse gas emissions for the top 20 emitting urban areas were aggregated into a one country, it would rank third behind China and the US. With urban areas forecasted to triple between 2010 and 2030 and urban population expected to increase by more than 2.5 billion, sustainable development will require a better understanding of how different types of urbanization affect energy use. However, there is a scarcity of data on energy use at the urban level that are available globally. Nighttime light satellite data have been shown to be related to energy use, but to date there has not been a systematic comparison of how well different sources of nighttime light data and their derived products can proxy electricity use. This paper fills this gap. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different types of nighttime light satellite data to proxy for electricity use for US cities. Second, we examine how the different types of nighttime light satellite data scale with the size of urban settlements and connect these findings to recent theoretical advances in scaling. We find that (1) all measures of nighttime light and urban electricity use in the US are strongly correlated and (2) different nighttime light-derived data can measure distinct urban energy characteristics such as energy infrastructure volume versus energy use. Our results do not show a clear best nighttime light proxy for total electricity consumption, despite of the use of higher spatial and temporal resolution data.

ACS Style

Michail Fragkias; Karen C Seto; José Lobo. A comparison of nighttime lights data for urban energy research: Insights from scaling analysis in the US system of cities. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 2016, 44, 1077 -1096.

AMA Style

Michail Fragkias, Karen C Seto, José Lobo. A comparison of nighttime lights data for urban energy research: Insights from scaling analysis in the US system of cities. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. 2016; 44 (6):1077-1096.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Michail Fragkias; Karen C Seto; José Lobo. 2016. "A comparison of nighttime lights data for urban energy research: Insights from scaling analysis in the US system of cities." Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 44, no. 6: 1077-1096.

Journal article
Published: 13 June 2016 in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
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The long time series of nighttime light (NTL) data collected by DMSP/OLS sensors provides a unique and valuable resource to study changes in human activities. However, its full time series potential has not been fully explored, mainly due to inconsistencies in the temporal signal. Previous studies have tried to resolve this issue in order to generate a consistent NTL time series. However, due to geographic limitations with the algorithms, these approaches cannot generate a coherent NTL time series globally. The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology to create a consistent NTL time series that can be applied globally. Our method is based on a novel sampling strategy to identify pseudoinvariant features. We select data points along a ridgeline-the densest part of a density plot generated between the reference image and the target image-and then use those data points to derive calibration models to minimize inconsistencies in the NTL time series. Results show that the algorithm successfully calibrates DMSP/OLS annual composites and generates a consistent NTL time series. Evaluation of the results shows that the calibrated NTL time series significantly reduces the differences between two images within the same year and increases the correlations between the NTL time series and gross domestic product as well as with energy consumption, and outperforms the Elvidge et al. (2014) method. The methodology is simple, robust, and easy to implement. The quality-enhanced NTL time series can be used in a myriad of applications that require a consistent data set over time.

ACS Style

Qingling Zhang; Bhartendu Pandey; Karen C. Seto. A Robust Method to Generate a Consistent Time Series From DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2016, 54, 5821 -5831.

AMA Style

Qingling Zhang, Bhartendu Pandey, Karen C. Seto. A Robust Method to Generate a Consistent Time Series From DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 2016; 54 (10):5821-5831.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Qingling Zhang; Bhartendu Pandey; Karen C. Seto. 2016. "A Robust Method to Generate a Consistent Time Series From DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 54, no. 10: 5821-5831.

Review
Published: 19 May 2016 in Science
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Global societies are becoming increasingly urban. This shift toward urban living is changing our relationship with food, including how we shop and what we buy, as well as ideas about sanitation and freshness. Achieving food security in an era of rapid urbanization will require considerably more understanding about how urban and food systems are intertwined. Here we discuss some potential understudied linkages that are ripe for further examination.

ACS Style

Karen C. Seto; Navin Ramankutty. Hidden linkages between urbanization and food systems. Science 2016, 352, 943 -945.

AMA Style

Karen C. Seto, Navin Ramankutty. Hidden linkages between urbanization and food systems. Science. 2016; 352 (6288):943-945.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Karen C. Seto; Navin Ramankutty. 2016. "Hidden linkages between urbanization and food systems." Science 352, no. 6288: 943-945.

Journal article
Published: 01 December 2015 in Urban Climate
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Urban areas are key sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and also are vulnerable to climate change. The recent IPCC Fifth Assessment Report illustrates a clear need for more research on urban strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, missing from the current literature on climate change and urban areas is a conceptual framework that integrates mitigation and adaptation perspectives and strategies. Because cities vary with respect to development histories, economic structure, urban form, institutional and financial capacities among other factors, it is critical to develop a framework that permits cross-city comparisons beyond simple single measures like population size. The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for a multi-dimensional urbanization climate change typology that considers the underlying and proximate causes of GHG emissions and climate change vulnerabilities. The paper reviews some of the basic steps required to build such a typology and associated challenges that must be overcome via a demonstration of a pilot typology with nine case study cities. The paper shows how the proposed framework can be used to evaluate and compare the conditions of GHG emissions and climate change vulnerability across cities at different phases in the urbanization process.

ACS Style

William Solecki; Karen C. Seto; Deborah Balk; Anthony Bigio; Christopher G. Boone; Felix Creutzig; Michail Fragkias; Shuaib Lwasa; Peter Marcotullio; Patricia Romero-Lankao; Timm Zwickel. A conceptual framework for an urban areas typology to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation. Urban Climate 2015, 14, 116 -137.

AMA Style

William Solecki, Karen C. Seto, Deborah Balk, Anthony Bigio, Christopher G. Boone, Felix Creutzig, Michail Fragkias, Shuaib Lwasa, Peter Marcotullio, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Timm Zwickel. A conceptual framework for an urban areas typology to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation. Urban Climate. 2015; 14 ():116-137.

Chicago/Turabian Style

William Solecki; Karen C. Seto; Deborah Balk; Anthony Bigio; Christopher G. Boone; Felix Creutzig; Michail Fragkias; Shuaib Lwasa; Peter Marcotullio; Patricia Romero-Lankao; Timm Zwickel. 2015. "A conceptual framework for an urban areas typology to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation." Urban Climate 14, no. : 116-137.

Review
Published: 25 September 2015 in Ambio
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Land use science has traditionally used case-study approaches for in-depth investigation of land use change processes and impacts. Meta-studies synthesize findings across case-study evidence to identify general patterns. In this paper, we provide a review of meta-studies in land use science. Various meta-studies have been conducted, which synthesize deforestation and agricultural land use change processes, while other important changes, such as urbanization, wetland conversion, and grassland dynamics have hardly been addressed. Meta-studies of land use change impacts focus mostly on biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles, while meta-studies of socioeconomic consequences are rare. Land use change processes and land use change impacts are generally addressed in isolation, while only few studies considered trajectories of drivers through changes to their impacts and their potential feedbacks. We provide a conceptual framework for linking meta-studies of land use change processes and impacts for the analysis of coupled human–environmental systems. Moreover, we provide suggestions for combining meta-studies of different land use change processes to develop a more integrated theory of land use change, and for combining meta-studies of land use change impacts to identify tradeoffs between different impacts. Land use science can benefit from an improved conceptualization of land use change processes and their impacts, and from new methods that combine meta-study findings to advance our understanding of human–environmental systems.

ACS Style

Jasper Van Vliet; Nicholas R. Magliocca; Bianka Büchner; Elizabeth Cook; José M. Rey Benayas; Erle C. Ellis; Andreas Heinimann; Eric Keys; Tien Ming Lee; Jianguo Liu; Ole Mertz; Patrick Meyfroidt; Mark Moritz; Christopher Poeplau; Brian E. Robinson; Ralf Seppelt; Karen C. Seto; Peter H. Verburg. Meta-studies in land use science: Current coverage and prospects. Ambio 2015, 45, 15 -28.

AMA Style

Jasper Van Vliet, Nicholas R. Magliocca, Bianka Büchner, Elizabeth Cook, José M. Rey Benayas, Erle C. Ellis, Andreas Heinimann, Eric Keys, Tien Ming Lee, Jianguo Liu, Ole Mertz, Patrick Meyfroidt, Mark Moritz, Christopher Poeplau, Brian E. Robinson, Ralf Seppelt, Karen C. Seto, Peter H. Verburg. Meta-studies in land use science: Current coverage and prospects. Ambio. 2015; 45 (1):15-28.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jasper Van Vliet; Nicholas R. Magliocca; Bianka Büchner; Elizabeth Cook; José M. Rey Benayas; Erle C. Ellis; Andreas Heinimann; Eric Keys; Tien Ming Lee; Jianguo Liu; Ole Mertz; Patrick Meyfroidt; Mark Moritz; Christopher Poeplau; Brian E. Robinson; Ralf Seppelt; Karen C. Seto; Peter H. Verburg. 2015. "Meta-studies in land use science: Current coverage and prospects." Ambio 45, no. 1: 15-28.

Journal article
Published: 03 February 2015 in Ambio
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China has high biodiversity and is rapidly urbanizing. However, there is limited understanding of how urban expansion in the country is likely to affect its habitats and biodiversity. In this study, we examine urban expansion patterns and their likely impacts on biodiversity in China by 2030. Our analysis shows that most provinces are expected to experience urban expansion either near their protected areas or in biodiversity hotspots. In a few provinces such as Guangdong in the south, urban expansion is likely to impinge on both protected areas and biodiversity hotspots. We show that policies that could facilitate the integration of natural resource protection into urban planning exist on paper, but the prevailing incentives and institutional arrangements between the central and local governments prevent this kind of integration. Removing these obstacles will be necessary in order to safeguard the country’s rich biodiversity in light of the scale of urbanization underway.

ACS Style

Burak Güneralp; Andrew S. Perlstein; Karen C. Seto. Balancing urban growth and ecological conservation: A challenge for planning and governance in China. Ambio 2015, 44, 532 -543.

AMA Style

Burak Güneralp, Andrew S. Perlstein, Karen C. Seto. Balancing urban growth and ecological conservation: A challenge for planning and governance in China. Ambio. 2015; 44 (6):532-543.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Burak Güneralp; Andrew S. Perlstein; Karen C. Seto. 2015. "Balancing urban growth and ecological conservation: A challenge for planning and governance in China." Ambio 44, no. 6: 532-543.