University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation

Sustainable development requires understanding how societies are organized spatially, especially around urban centers, given that 92% of the global population either lives in an urban center or within 1 h travel time. An urban hierarchy exists in terms of services provided by cities of different sizes. For example, one may rely on the closest town for groceries but may commute to work in a small city and travel to a hospital in a large city. City-regions, typically intended as combinations of an urban center or centers linked to periurban areas and a rural hinterland by functional ties, are increasingly attracting the attention for the implementation of development policies. However, research on city-regions frequently relies on case studies of major cities, lacking a comprehensive systems perspective on the relationships between cities of varying sizes and their surrounding areas. This knowledge gap is especially pronounced between Global North and South and between small and large cities.

Recently, in collaboration with FAO, we created a comprehensive spatial representation of city-regions globally to provide a better understanding on how people are organized around urban centers. The dataset covers 213 countries/territories and provides valuable information to develop strategies to enhance connectivity to improve food systems, access to health and education services and environmental and natural resource management. To facilitate the use of the dataset, we also developed an online platform, City Regions Explorer, that provides easy access to geo-spatial information and summary statistics on city-regions globally and enable rapid comparison of multiple city-regions. During WUF12 we aim to publicly announce the platform and organize a demonstration event to introduce city-regions and the platform to all interested parties. We want to use the UNI Booth for this purpose.