In this study, the Austin metropolitan area, Texas, U.S., one of the fastest urban transformations and transformations regions, is selected to test the hypothesis that spatial planning and policies are important factors of urban transformations. Despite ample previous work in understanding the interactions between human and urban form transformation at specific areas, the actual interventions and outcomes of planning and policies (e.g., ‘smart growth’) on urban forms have been poorly measured. In this study, the potential influencing factors of urban transformations of Austin over 25 years were selected and collected.