Several developing countries in South/Southeast Asia are undergoing rapid urbanization with accompanying changes in land use and lifestyles both within towns and cities and in the rural areas that supply urban areas with food and other resources.

Over the next two decades, the combined urban population in China and India will grow by more than 700 million. China’s urban population is expected to increase by 400 million and India’s urban population will nearly double from today’s 350 million. Put into a global context, by 2030, nearly one-third of the world’s urban inhabitants will live in either China or India. The primary goal of this NASA LCLUC project was to quantify and understand the growth of urban clusters and the loss of agricultural land in these two rapidly urbanizing countries.