People often speak metaphorically of the heartbeat or pulse of a city, but according to new research, cities do indeed have an ‘urban pulse’—an indication of urban ‘metabolic activity’ that can be measured to reveal telltale patterns. These patterns could help inform future public policy around urban planning.

The precise definition of urbanisation has shifted over the centuries. Zhe Zhu and his team at the University of Connecticut adopted a broad version for their study, which features fundamental ‘processes of concurrent change in at least six dimensions, including demography, economy, infrastructure, environment, governance and culture.’ Together they give rise to outcomes such as population growth, urban land expansion, GDP growth, and innovation. Their chosen metrics reflect this dynamic view: cities are not static grids but ‘living, adaptive ecosystems’.

‘For decades, we had just been capturing the outcome of urbanisation—a house that’s been built or a road expansion,’ said Zhu. ‘But you don’t really see the dynamics within an urban area. This is going to be a very impactful tool influencing not only top-down policy decisions from governments but also bottom-up decisions from everyday people navigating their cities.’

Their analysis revealed three distinctive “vital signs” for monitoring cities: first, urbanization is ‘spiky’—there are sharp, short-lived spikes in activity, not smooth continuous growth. The best example of this is Dubai, whose coastal areas showed very large spikes in redevelopment activity, most notably capital-intensive projects like luxury towers or mixed-used buildings.

Shenzhen’s spikes were more clustered, reflecting the city’s capacity for rapid, state-led mobilisation of capital and construction, according to Zhu et al. These urban heartbeats could one day be as relevant as checking a neighbourhood’s ‘pulse’ while house-hunting or scouting potential locations for a new business.