Analysing urban growth using machine learning and open data: An artificial neural network modelled case study of five Greek cities

•Forecasting urban growth via machine learning models can improve city planning.•We turn pan-European spatial data into tabular data for our predictive model.•We apply our Artificial Neural Network model in five major Greek cities.•We present our training and validation process using goodness-of-fit metrics.•We make an urban growth prediction for each city for a 12-year cycle to the year 2030.