ABSTRACT
Currently, approximately half of the world population lives in urban areas and this is anticipated to exceed 60% by 2030, with 90% of projected urbanization occurring in low-income countries (UN, 2004). The rapid and uncontrolled development of human settlement areas has many potentially detrimental effects, including the loss of valuable agricultural and ecologically sensitive lands, enhanced energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions from increasing private and public
vehicle use (Guindon et al., 2004). Timely information on changes in human settlement type, distribution, location, and size, and the probable effects of changes is therefore needed, as well as information on social, demographic, and economic parameters.
