GloGCI-World Ghost Cities Index Ranking

Due to rapid urbanization over the past 20 years, many newly developed areas have lagged in socio-economic maturity, creating an imbalance with older cities and leading to the rise of "ghost cities". However, the complexity of socio-economic factors has hindered global studies from measuring this phenomenon. To address this gap, a unified framework based on urban vitality theory and multi-source data is proposed to measure the Ghost City Index (GCI), which has been validated using various data sources. The study encompasses 8,841 natural cities worldwide with areas exceeding 5 km², categorizing each into new urban areas (developed after 2005) and old urban areas (developed before 2005). Urban vitality was gauged using the density of road networks, points of interest (POIs), and population density with 1 km resolution across morphological, functional, and social dimensions. By comparing urban vitality in new and old urban areas, we quantify the GCI globally using the theory of urban vitality for the first time. The results reveal that the vitality of new urban areas is 7.69% that of old ones. The top 5% (442) of cities were designated as ghost cities, a finding mirrored by news media and other research. This study sheds light on strategies for sustainable global urbanization, crucial for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.The code file gives the calculation process of data respectively, and the excel file gives the obtained data. For the explanation of the fields in “citypoint.shp”, please refer to the Supplementary Information of the paper (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350).Ref: Zhang, Y., Tu, T., &amp; Long, Y. (2025). Inferring ghost cities on the globe in newly developed urban areas based on urban vitality with multi-source data. Habitat International, 158, 103350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350<br><br>

过去二十年间，伴随快速城市化进程，大量新建开发区在社会经济成熟度层面存在滞后，与成熟老城形成发展失衡，进而催生了“鬼城”现象。
然而，社会经济要素的复杂性阻碍了全球范围内针对该现象的量化研究。
为填补这一研究空白，本研究基于城市活力理论与多源数据构建统一分析框架，用于测算鬼城指数（Ghost City Index, GCI），并通过多类数据源对该框架进行了验证。
本研究覆盖全球8841个面积超过5平方千米的自然城市，并将其划分为2005年后开发的新城片区与2005年前开发的老城片区。
研究从形态、功能与社会三个维度，以1千米分辨率的道路网密度、兴趣点（points of interest, POIs）密度以及人口密度作为城市活力的衡量指标。
本研究首次基于城市活力理论，通过对比新城与老城片区的活力水平，实现了全球尺度下鬼城指数的量化测算。
测算结果显示，新城片区的活力仅为老城片区的7.69%。
其中排名前5%（共442个）的城市被划定为鬼城，该结果与新闻媒体报道及其他相关研究的结论相符。
本研究为全球可持续城市化路径提供了理论支撑，这对联合国可持续发展目标的实现具有重要意义。
代码文件分别给出了数据的计算流程，Excel文件则包含了最终获取的测算数据。
关于“citypoint.shp”文件中各字段的详细说明，请参阅论文的补充材料（https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350）。
参考文献：Zhang, Y., Tu, T., & Long, Y. (2025). Inferring ghost cities on the globe in newly developed urban areas based on urban vitality with multi-source data. Habitat International, 158, 103350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350