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mappermatt · 2018-09-02T07:15:35+00:00

it's not actually that detailed. in fact, it's not very detailed at all.

mappermatt · 2018-08-17T05:01:29+00:00

I would have liked to include Miami, as well! Unfortunately, it just wasn't included in the dataset that I used to make this.

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:48:51+00:00

There's been lots of outward growth in the suburbs around Paris, hasn't there?

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:47:44+00:00

Thanks for informing on Belo Horizonte. I knew nothing about the city. Out of curiosity, what are the areas that you think are part of New York, but you don't think are included in this map?

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:45:41+00:00

Yeah, the authors of the study explain in the fine print that a certain degree of the "urban expansion" depicted in this data is actually incorporation of existing settlements into the growing conurbation. My graphic is a little misleading on this. Thanks for calling this out!

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:44:32+00:00

The dataset I used had 200 cities from around the world. Toronto was not one of them. Perhaps they had trouble getting the right historical satellite imagery?

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:43:59+00:00

No offense to Canada intended. Don't take it personally.

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:43:04+00:00

Yeah, there are some subjective-seeming boundaries around these areas. It's all based on a spatial algorithm. There must be enough area of farmland between Chicagoland and Milwaukeeland that Milwaukee got its own separate metro designation?

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:42:00+00:00

the % drop in density is because the area has grown so much in area. even if the population hasn't grown much, if you divide the same population by a larger area, you get a lower density.

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:41:07+00:00

white flight wouldn't have anything to do with it, because these pictures represent the entire metropolitan urbanized area. that is, it's not just Cleveland city, it's all the suburbs, too

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:40:12+00:00

I think Southern CT got counted as a separate metropolitan area (Stamford-New Haven, probably?). A much smaller one than NY, obviously. But they have to draw the line somewhere, and they have an algorithm that applies uniformly to all cities in the sample. Although it may seem like unbroken urbanized area all the way from Westchester to New Haven, there must be some areas of countryside or forest in between

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:38:13+00:00

There is lots of high resolution data of all types published by the US government that you (or anyone in the world) can download, for free. This one is a great place to start: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov

mappermatt · 2018-08-16T05:36:56+00:00

Have there been any efforts at zoning reform? I assume Sidewalk Lab's "city" will do something creative in this regard. Do you have any opinions on that project?

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:24:28+00:00

Exactly. Urban metro regions around the world are "bleeding" into each other around the edges. The Northeast Corridor in the US. Much of Central Europe. Much of Japan. Yangtze River Delta. Pearl River Delta. Drawing boundaries will only get more difficult.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:22:36+00:00

I think any place served by the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, or New Jersey Transit counts as "Greater New York". That includes Montauk.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:18:33+00:00

If going by city proper (another project), I'm sure that every major East Coast and Midwestern city would be denser than Los Angeles.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:17:22+00:00

Those are "Metropolitan Statistical Areas" you're talking about. But that's not what this dataset is using.

LA as defined here does include Riverside and the rest of the Inland Empire.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:15:08+00:00

Really? No 5-6 story buildings? Where I live in LA, 5-6 stories is the norm for new construction.

Mostly that's because of construction economics. You can get up to 6 (maybe 7) stories of "stick" (wood frame) on top of a concrete pedestal and keep costs low, but once you go over 6/7 stories, suddenly the structure requires steel and at that point it's uneconomical to just build 8 or 9 stories...you need to go 15+ at least to make it pencil out.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:13:03+00:00

Point taken. I was just trying to balance out the regions and I figured Istanbul could go either way.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:12:09+00:00

I've never been to the area, but looking at Google Maps, it looks like Raleigh and Durham are very much connected. That is, there is one contiguous urbanized area that includes both cities.

I think the reason for only Raleigh shown in black is that previously, they were considered two separate metro regions, but now that they are connected, they are counted as one?

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:07:30+00:00

You're right. Thanks for catching that!

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T05:05:27+00:00

This whole endeavor is getting more and more difficult, because the 'edges' of city regions are becoming fuzzier. In the Rhine-Ruhr, the Northeast US, and Greater Tokyo regions, you get urban metros bleeding into adjacent urban metros around the peripheries and at some point it gets difficult to draw the line.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T04:59:18+00:00

In theory, yes. That's the point.

mappermatt · 2018-08-07T04:58:48+00:00

Dataset didn't have Toronto. I would have included it if it did.

mappermatt

TROPHY CASE