Framework and Use Case for a Web-Based Interactive Analysis Tool to Investigate Urban Expansion and Sustainable Development Goal Indicators

Land cover changes have been mapped for decades to investigate urban expansion patterns. Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), several indices are employed to interpret urban growth trends quantitatively and comprehensively. However, landowners and the interested public usually have limited insights into these types of information as access to data and software is limited. Static maps and the inability to access special file formats increase the difficulty of viewing and investigating the data. This contribution presents a dedicated, interactive, web-based analysis tool for integrating land cover and land use maps as well as urban expansion indices. The tool’s concept, development and functionality are presented, and its general design is reviewed based on an actual implementation case. The setup allows integrating land use and land cover (LULC) change data alongside SDG indicators. The tool’s design aims to enhance user accessibility to information on urban expansion indices and LULC. We demonstrate that such a tool can be used to help disseminate results and to improve communication with the public in the context of other use cases.