Characterizing urban form by means of the Urban Metric System

One of the most important challenges of land-use regulation relates to the control of urban sprawl. The Urban Metric System (UMS) has been conceived in order: 1- to standardize the definitions of central city, agglomeration, metropolitan area, megacity, and other urban-area concepts; 2- to characterize and compare urban areas; 3to measure urban sprawl. This paper focusses on the step-by-step application of the continuous version of UMS. It also presents a new global urban sprawl index.

Automated summary

One of the main challenges in land-use regulation is controlling urban sprawl. The Urban Metric System (UMS) aims to standardize urban area concepts and measure urban sprawl, with a focus on applying the continuous version of UMS and introducing a new global urban sprawl index.