Estimating world-region specific parameters for a refined, statistics-based global urban and population allocation model.

The EC has committed to produce global urbanization scenarios for the upcoming UN World Urbanization Prospects report. To this end a JRC taskforce is developing a suitable model. This model will partially be driven by statistical relations between the presence or growth of built-up land, and a set of spatially explicit variables by which the location of built-up land development can be described. To do so, an exploration is necessary that searches which variables are relevant for describing built-up land development; in addition, the relative contributions of those variables to location choices need to be quantified. This is a highly specialised task for which the JRC intends to collaborate with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.