Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Urban Land Expansion and Population Growth in Africa from 2001 to 2019: Evidence from Population Density Data

Africa has been undergoing a rapid urbanization process, which is critical to the achievement of 11th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG11). Using population density data from LandScan, we proposed density-based thresholding method generate urban land and in 2001 2019, were further applied detect spatiotemporal characteristics Africa’s urbanization. The results showed that have both grown rapidly Africa, increased by about 5.92% 4.91%, respectively. top three countries with most intense process are Nigeria, Democratic Republic Congo, Ethiopia. coupling relationship index expansion growth was 0.76 during 2001–2019. Meanwhile, total proportion uncoordinated development types at provincial level getting higher, indicated an between Africa. Cropland, grassland, rural land, forests land-use occupied expansion. cropland, higher 2019. extensive use may impact on environmental economic benefits brought urbanization, needs research.