Urbanization. Global Change. Sustainability.

These words denote paramount human and environmental concerns for the 21st Century. The Urban Group at Stanford University works at the intersection of these three concepts. Examining rapidly urbanizing regions in Asia, the Middle East and North America, our research aims to uncover the drivers behind urbanization, the role of globalization in the urban process and the environmental impacts of urban growth. We are interested both in understanding fundamental processes to advance academic knowledge and in crafting rules-of-thumb for policy application.

Our interdisciplinary research team is drawn from a wide range of academic fields including earth system science, policy studies, history, geography, environmental systems analysis, urban planning and spatial statistics. Methodologically, we employ remote sensing analysis, geographic information science, statistics, systems modeling, stakeholder interviews, fieldwork and historical assessment. Our research has been sponsored by NASA, the U.S. National Science Foundation, UPS, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, and the Woods Institute for the Environment.

If you're interested in learning more about the work we do, please check out the individual projects listed under Research above.