The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Land uptake per person (inhabitants and jobs) (LUP) describes the use of urban built-up area by people working and living in that area.

The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Land uptake per person (inhabitants and jobs) (LUP) describes the use of urban built-up area by people working and living in that area.