Global City-level Dataset of Geographic Constraints and Urban Growth Metrics (7,385 Cities, 1990–2020)

This dataset accompanies the study “Geographic constraints shape urban and economic growth worldwide”.It provides city-level panel data for 7,385 cities worldwide across four time points (1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020). The dataset includes two geographic constraint metrics:Share of Barriers (SOB): proportion of undevelopable land (water bodies and steep slopes >15°) within an adaptive buffer around each city.Nonconvexity: degree to which natural barriers fragment the surrounding developable land.It also includes urban growth and structural indicators derived from global datasets, including:Urban areaPopulationGDP and GDP per capitaPopulation densityAverage built-up heightCircular IndexFractal DimensionSprawl IndexGrowth rates for 1990–2000, 2000–2010, 2010–2020, and 1990–2020All metrics were computed using publicly available global datasets, including GUB (GAIA), GADM, GHSL, WorldClim, ERA5, SRTM, and the Kummu et al. gridded GDP dataset.The dataset enables replication of all regression analyses presented in the paper and supports further research on geographic constraints, urban morphology, and long-term urban development trajectories.