Contextualising Urban Change: A Novel Classification System for Measuring Built Environment Change Across Great Britain

Public health policy increasingly recognises the influence of built environments on health outcomes. However, most spatial datasets cannot track context-dependent environmental changes over time, a critical limitation when assessing the health impacts of urban development. This study develops the Built Environment Context and Change Atlas (BECCA), a novel methodology quantifying context-dependent built environment changes across Great Britain (2015-2020). Using the best available national spatial data, we integrated information on buildings, roads, and land cover, applying multivariate clustering to classify both environmental context and changes at 500m resolution. Stakeholders guided the definition of meaningful change categories. BECCA identified that 11% of GB cells underwent change, with substantial variation in development patterns across Functional Urban Areas, ranging from peripheral expansion to infill growth. While developed for Great Britain, this methodological framework is adaptable to other national contexts with similar spatial data availability, offering a template for international environmental change monitoring. By addressing critical gaps in existing environmental change data, BECCA provides a robust foundation for future research linking built environment dynamics to health outcomes, supporting evidence-based urban planning decisions.