Urban development refers to urbanization with its different dimensions and perceptions: physical (land use change such as urban sprawl and increase in artificial surfaces), geographical (population and employment concentration), economic (markets, agglomeration economies and knowledge spillovers) and societal (social and cultural change). Urbanization is a process that takes a territory to an urban state in these different dimensions, most notably through population and employment increase and linked land use changes.

In this regard, processes of population and employment deconcentration that supersede concentration processes are referred to as suburbanization, periurbanisation and exurbanisation (depending on at which distance to the urban centre growth takes place). Generally, periurban growth is defined as non-urban population growth that widely outpaces the growth of the city, also impacting land use.