Researchers from Rice University are set to begin a three-year study on how urban development is affecting neighborhoods and residents in greater Houston, a project inspired by the city’s continuing urbanization.

“There are always two sides to development – some are very positive, while others are negative,” Steve Murdock, sociology professor and director of the university’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, said in a statement. “This project will examine the issue from both sides, and our goal is to provide quantitative, definitive data on how metropolitan, Harris County and Houston neighborhoods are changing.”

The university received a $1 million grant from the Houston Endowment for the study, which aims to identify population changes between 2000 and 2014 in metropolitan-area counties and in neighborhoods within Harris County and the city of Houston.

The study will rely on population and housing data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses, as well as American Community Survey data from 2005 through 2014. New data will be obtained through a survey be administered in 2015 and conducted by the University of Houston’s Hobby Center for Public Policy.

A research team will start by identifying areas in the city and area counties that are undergoing significant development and redevelopment.

“In urban development, traditionally people move from the central city out to the suburbs,” Mike Cline, a research scientist at the Hobby Center said in the statement. “Now there has been a lot of discussion of people moving back to the central city. Academic literature indicates that this may be happening in some locations, but we do not know how much of that is true for our area. We also do not know the extent of recent changes in the Houston-metropolitan area, in Harris County and the city of Houston. This is a major goal of the study.”