Pick of the Day: Is the World Empty? Or Overcrowded? It’s Both

By Renard Teipelke

Recently, I wrote an article on this blog about scale, in which I also discussed the relation between scale and density (here). Natasha Geiling now presents a nice interactive collection of Esri satellite images showcasing both very densely populated and very remote, seemingly ‘empty’ locations (here). While one can have endless debates about the data on which descriptions such as “the world’s densest city” are based, interactive maps like these remind us of the huge diversity we are encountering when touching only a single aspect such as ‘density’. At the same time, the collection of 20 places underscores how arbitrary the selection is and how much more there is to discover.

Check out the story and interactive map here.