These charts–made with the information from weather satellites scanning the ground–show how wide and how tall cities around the world have grown. What’s happening to the size of cities in Asia will blow your mind.
Faced with the incomprehensible scale of worldwide mega-urbanization, observers have alternately fallen back on sheer numbers or city comparisons to drive home the speed at which cities in the developing world are growing. For example, New York University’s Shlomo “Solly†Angel projects the world’s urban population will double in 40 years, while urban land cover — including everything from skyscrapers to slums — will triple in size during that span. Grasping to put such numbers into context, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates China will build the equivalent of New York every other year for 20 years, while India needs to add the equivalent of a Chicago to its building stock annually.
The mind reels, but such comparisons tell us little about the truth on the ground — is the urban future of India more likely to look like Chicago or Dharavi (Mumbai’s famous slum) or something else completely? A satellite designed to measure ocean winds offers us a clue.
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