Delineating urban areas using building density

Marie-Pierre de Bellefon, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon and Clément Gorin
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Marie-Pierre de Bellefon: INSEE - Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: We develop a new dartboard methodology to delineate urban areas using detailed information about building location, which we implement using a map of all buildings in France. For each pixel, our approach compares actual building density after smoothing to counterfactual smoothed building density computed after randomly redistributing buildings. We define as urban any area with statistically significant excess building density. Within urban areas, extensions to our approach allow us to distinguish ‘core' urban pixels and detect centres and subcentres. Finally, we develop novel one- and two-sided tests that provide a statistical basis to compare maps with different delineations, which we use to assess the robustness of our approach and to document large differences between our preferred delineation and the corresponding official one.

Date: 2021-09
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02492519v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published in Journal of Urban Economics, 2021, 125, ⟨10.1016/j.jue.2019.103226⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Delineating urban areas using building density (2021)
Working Paper: Delineating urban areas using building density (2021)
Working Paper: Delineating urban areas using building density (2021)
Working Paper: Delineating urban areas using building density (2019)
Working Paper: Delineating urban areas using building density (2019)
Working Paper: Delineating urban areas using building density (2019)
Working Paper: Delineating Urban Areas Using Building Density (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02492519

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2019.103226

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