Pixelating Cities Changes Sustainability Claims

EPFL researchers redefined 100 cities worldwide using uniform 'pixels' instead of ad‑hoc boundaries and found that urban systems obey biological-like scaling laws. Crucially, the supposed per‑capita efficiency edge of large cities depends on where you draw the city’s edge—sometimes erasing the 'bigger is better' result. Cities also appear to self‑organize similarly across contexts without central planning. — If policy conclusions hinge on boundary definitions, urban planning, climate accounting, and intercity rankings need standardized measurement or risk building on artifacts.