Urban Expansion and the Loss of Ecological Infrastructure
Mapping the Sustainability Costs of Metropolitan Growth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66838/sauc.6500Keywords:
urban expansion; metropolitan growth; ecological infrastructure; ecosystem services; urban sprawl; habitat quality; green infrastructure; sustainability.Abstract
Rapid metropolitan growth converts ecologically functional land into built surfaces, yet the sustainability costs of this process are fragmented across land-change, habitat, ecosystem-service, and urban-climate research. This systematic review synthesised the evidence on the effects of urban expansion on ecological infrastructure and converted the evidence into similar sustainability-cost spaces. Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and Green File were searched between 2016 and 2026, and 926 records were found. After eliminating 126 duplicates, 800 records were filtered, 140 full texts were evaluated, and 25 open-access primary studies were eligible. Structured evidence mapping, comparative thematic analysis, and methodological quality appraisal were used to synthesise evidence. It was geographically concentrated in Asia, with lesser contributions from Africa and Europe, and dominated by remote-sensing, GIS, ecosystem-service valuation, InVEST, landscape-metric, and scenario-modelling methods......
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