Spatial delineation of urban corridors in North America: An approach incorporating fuzziness based on multi-source geospatial data

Abstract

Urban corridors are – from a spatial perspective – massively large, linear urban agglomerations consisting of a number of big cities or clusters aligned along high-speed road or rail lines. Fixed administrative boundaries are commonly used to define such urban areas. However, this does not usually reflect the actual extent of the built-up space in today's changing, multi-faceted urban landscape. Earth observation data provide the means to identify urban space in its spatial dimension, disregarding preconceived boundaries. We therefore use multi-source geodata including night-time lights, settlement patterns and population density to spatially delineate large urban corridors in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Using pre-classified input layers, we identify and present varying outlines of 14 urban corridors through geospatial methods. With this approach, we address spatial ambiguities of such concepts and show fuzziness at the edges of these corridors.