Article in: Environment and Urbanization 

Authors: Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent, and Daniel L. Civco

First published: 2012

Pages: 249-283

Overview:  A key question that has confronted urban planners, policy makers and concerned environmentalists worldwide for some time is whether the fragmentation of the urban landscape is an inherent feature of contemporary cities that must be taken into account in planning for and managing urban expansion, or whether it is a disorderly, wasteful and undesirable form of sprawl that must be brought under control through containment or growth management strategies of one type or another.

Full Text: The Fragmentation of Urban Landscapes (PDF)

Article in: China’s Housing Reform and Outcomes

Authors: Shlomo Angel, Midori Valdiva, and Rebecca M. Lutzy

First published: 2011

Pages: 137-156

Overview:  This volume provides background and explanations about the causes and consequences of China’s boom in residential construction, and it reviews how some well-established and ongoing trends are likely to impact China’s housing sector in coming years.

Full Text: Urban Expansion, Land Conversion, and Affordable Housing (PDF)

Article in: Climate Change and Land Policies

Authors: Shlomo Angel, A.M. Blei, J. Parent, and D.L. Civco

First published: 2011

Pages: 191-210

Overview: A century of density decline in U.S. metropolitan areas has posed structural challenges to the provision of transit services.  This article shows that both the share of the metropolitan populations that can sustain transit and the share of metropolitan ares that can sustain transit have declined substantially over time and are now exceedingly low in most U.S. metropolitan areas.

Full Text: The Fragmentation of Urban Landscapes (PDF)

Article in: Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review 4 (1)

Authors: Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent

First published: 2011

Pages: 89-130

Overview: This essay proposes a novel compactness standard “for courts to identify at least the worst cases of gerrymandering and to provide a remedy.” This standard is based on the perception of gerrymandering as aggressive voter exchange, an exchange that distorts the shapes of election districts and renders them non-compact by expelling voters living close by and exchanging them for voters living further away.

Full Text: Non-Compactness and Voter Exchange (PDF)

Article in: Progress in Planning, Volume 75, Issue 2

Authors: Shlomo Angel, J. Parent, D. L. Civco, A.M. Blei and D. Potere

First published: 2011

Pages: 53-108

Overview: The rapid growth in global urban land cover is likely to continue as long as urban populations continue to grow, as long as incomes continue to rise, and as long as urban transport remains relatively cheap and affordable.  This article therefore seeks to refocus the attention of planners, policy makers and concerned activists on urban expansion in developing countries and to begin to examine its policy implications.

Full Text: The Dimensions of Global Urban Expansion (PDF)

Article in: Canadian Geographer 54

Authors: Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent, and Daniel L. Civco

First published: 2010

Pages: 441-461

Overview: This essay sheds new light on the meaning and measurement of compactness—one of the most intriguing and least-understood properties of geographic shapes. We articulate a unified theoretical foundation for the study of shape compactness that rests on two simple observations: First, that the circle is the most compact of shapes. And second, that there are 10—and possibly more—distinct geometrical properties of the circle that make it the most compact of shapes. We introduce these 10 properties, illustrate them with real-world examples and define indices associated with these properties that can be calculated using a geographic information system.

Full Text: Ten Compactness Properties of Circles (PDF)

Article in: International Journal of Remote Sensing 30(24)

Authors: Shlomo Angel, David Potere, Annemarie Schneider, and Daniel L. Civco

First published: December, 2009

Pages: 6531-6558

Overview: The goal of this research is to establish the accuracy of the coarse-resolution global urban maps by comparing them to a new, random-stratified global assessment dataset derived from two collections of medium-resolution (28.5 m) Landsat-based city maps and high-resolution Google Earth (GE) imagery.

Full Text: Mapping Urban Area on a Global Scale (PDF)

Article in: The New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21st Century

Authors: Shlomo Angel

First published: 2008

Pages: 115-130

Overview: This chapter focuses on the provision of land for the urban poor in a context of rapid urban expansion.  It describes a methodology and provides a concrete demonstration of how the land needs of the poor can be effectively met, using examples from five mid-sized cities in Ecuador.

Full Text: Preparing for Urban Expansion (PDF)

Article in: Cities 25 (3)

Authors: Shlomo Angel

First published: June 2008

Pages: 146-162

Overview: Between 2000 and 2030, cities in developing countries will double their population from 2 to 4 billion and at least triple their total built-up area. This essay assesses the state of preparedness for the projected urban expansion. 

Full Text: An Arterial Grid of Dirt Roads (PDF)

Article in: Journal of Housing Economics, 10

Authors: Shlomo Angel

First published: 2001

Pages: 176–209

Overview: This paper presents a diagnostic tool for the rapid assessment of the housing market and housing policy in a given country, using a global comparative perspective. The aim of such an assessment is to ground proposed government interventions in the housing market in a broader housing market reform. In this article, Shlomo Angel uses the study conducted in Panama to illustrate the usefulness of this diagnostic framework, and to demonstrate how to derive specific policy recommendations from a general comparative analysis.

Full Text: Housing Policy Assessment and Its Application to Panama (PDF)