Land development, land use, and urban sprawl in Puerto Rico integrating remote sensing and population census data

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Notably, the SJMA is one of the most extended urbanized areas in the world when compared with cities of similar population from different countries. It is comparable to St. Louis and Minneapolis–St. Paul, which have been identified within the most sprawled cities in the U.S. (Sutton, 2003). The importance of SJMA is enhanced by its particular environmental situation: while urbanized areas comparable to SJMA are in relatively flat continental landscapes with vast sources of land for agriculture, expansion, and conservation, SJMA is located on a small and essentially mountainous island with limited sources of land. (Martinuzzi, Gould, Ramos)