Conference Agenda

There is increasing demand for comprehensive microspatial land use data at the building and land parcel scale. Such data is essential for providing detailed insights into economic activities and is crucial for infrastructure management and planning aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Potential applications span a wide range, from the operation of national planning systems and transport networks to tackling challenges such as illegal mining, deforestation, and carbon emission modelling.

Despite this need, detailed national-scale spatial datasets remain rare. Land use information is often fragmented, incomplete, restricted in access, and lacks harmonised classification systems both within and across countries. This paper presents recent progress in developing low-cost, scalable methods to address these challenges and support cross-country standardisation.

The Colouring Cities Research Programme (CCRP) is an international academic initiative, launched in 2014, that promotes the release and harmonisation of open microspatial data to support the SDGs. It operates through a network of interoperable, open-source, open-data platforms managed at the national level by voluntary research consortia. The CCRP is decentralised, without formal agreements, and is overseen by academic partners who coordinate national platforms, CCRP Global Hubs, and technical and research groups. Since 2023, the programme has tripled national engagement and now collaborates with researchers in over 30 countries. It aims to pool research expertise and resources to minimise costs, reduce duplication, and accelerate problem-solving on common SDG-related challenges.

This paper focuses on how individual researchers within the CCRP are using national platforms to collaboratively develop and test prototype code for data capture, visualisation, and classification. It highlights the role of Colouring Britain, the CCRP’s prototype platform, developed by researchers at the Alan Turing Institute and Loughborough University, as a testbed for land use data capture and classification.

The paper begins by outlining the key uses of spatial land use data in the UK, barriers to access, existing data sources, and inconsistencies in classification systems. It then describes the creation of a new national building footprint dataset for England and Wales, developed to initiate open spatial data sharing. A case study of Loughborough is presented, including data extraction, visualisation, and findings.

In the final section, the paper explores the development of open-source code to automatically align UK land use classifications with international standards, such as ISIC and NACE, to enable global comparability. It concludes by outlining the next steps for testing the new land use code with CCRP partners in the European Hub.

As in many countries across the Global South, the phenomenon of rapid urbanisation has significantly influenced the trajectory of urban development in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. Starting in the 1970s, the city witnessed a period of intense urban growth, primarily driven by large-scale internal migration from rural areas and the widespread emergence of informal housing settlements. This marked a turning point in Ankara’s urbanisation path, one that redefined its spatial organisation and socio-economic dynamics. The outcomes of this urbanisation process, however, have been highly uneven, manifesting differently across the city's neighbourhoods depending on a variety of spatial and socio-economic characteristics.
This study, conducted within the framework of an ongoing PhD research project, seeks to analyse and interpret the spatial and temporal dimensions of Ankara's urban transformation from the 1970s to the 2020s. The principal aim is to evaluate how the city has evolved over the past half-century in terms of its physical form, housing structures, and social fabric, while also critically assessing the implications of these changes for long-term urban sustainability. Through the study’s longitudinal methodology, which builds upon the foundational household surveys originally conducted by the British urban academician Geoffrey Payne in the 1970s, detailed empirical data on housing conditions, tenure security, and infrastructure access across various neighbourhoods were provided. Therefore, the study re-administers those surveys in the same locations approximately fifty years later, providing a unique opportunity to directly compare historical and contemporary data and thus uncover long-term trends in urban development. This approach offers valuable insights into the trajectories of rapid urbanisation and the extent to which urban integration and formalisation have occurred over time.
Four neighbourhoods were selected as case studies, each representing different characteristics of urban development, ranging from long-standing informal settlements and transition areas to formally planned and regulated residential zones. In addition to the replicated surveys, the study incorporates qualitative data collected through in-depth, semi-structured storytelling interviews with long-term residents, which offer rich narratives and localised perspectives on the socio-spatial transformation of Ankara, capturing the lived experiences of change, resilience, adaptation, and continuity across generations.
The study adopts a mixed-methodological framework, combining quantitative data analysis with qualitative interpretation, to achieve a holistic understanding of urban change. This integrated approach allows for a comprehensive examination of various dimensions, including shifts in housing quality, economic opportunity structures, and evolving patterns of social cohesion. Together, these elements provide an empirical foundation for assessing how changes in urban form and policy have influenced the overall liveability and sustainability of neighbourhoods. The research, therefore, sheds light on the enduring effects of policy decisions, socio-economic disparities, and informal urban practices by explicitly linking past urban conditions with present-day realities.

Rapid land-use transformations in emerging urban regions are increasingly challenging environmental sustainability and climate resilience, particularly in the Global South. This study presents a remote sensing-based assessment of the spatiotemporal dynamics of land surface temperature (LST) in response to land use and land cover (LULC) changes in Phnom Penh, a city in the Global South undergoing intense urbanisation. Using a semi-automatic workflow implemented in Google Earth Engine, we analysed over 425 Landsat scenes (2000–2021) and spectral indices (NDVI, MNDWI, IBI) to capture long-term seasonal patterns, extreme heat events, and correlations between LST and land cover characteristics.

The findings reveal a clear upward trend in LST associated with the conversion of vegetated and peri-urban agricultural land to impervious built-up surfaces. Site-specific analysis highlights substantial spatial and seasonal variability, including localised urban heat amplification in newly developed zones. Correlation analysis confirms a strong relationship between increased built-up indices and elevated LST, while vegetated and water-covered areas consistently moderated thermal extremes.

By offering a replicable and computationally efficient approach to monitoring urban thermal dynamics, this study supports evidence-based spatial planning and land governance. It provides actionable insights for integrating climate-sensitive design into urban development strategies, particularly in fast-transforming cities of the Global South.