City Branding, Sustainable Urban Development and the Rentier State. How do Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai present Themselves in the Age of Post Oil and Global Warming?

In the past three decades Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai have realised a meteoric economic rise. Whereas the former two can be considered ‘rentier states’ heavily depending on oil (and gas) revenues, the latter only leans on oil for a mere 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Although the economic rise has brought considerable welfare, it has...

Can more accurate night-time remote sensing data simulate a more detailed population distribution?

Aging, shrinking cities, urban agglomerations and other new key terms continue to emerge when describing the large-scale population changes in various cities in mainland China. It is important to simulate the distribution of residential populations at a coarse scale to manage cities as a whole, and at a fine scale for policy making in...

Density, form and performance

A redefinition of building economics towards sustainability will include the spatial approach of green field investments and most of all necessary intensification of brown field development. For large parts of Western Europe and the US the latter will be, according to economic principles of concentration and revaluation of city life, the main...