Friday, February 18, 2011

Land footprint by population density of various cities







This is a map I wanted to make to compare the effects of the density of the cities we live in on the size of our environment lost to concrete.
I chose among the lowest population density of a major US city I could find (Nashville, Tennessee) and compared it to San Francisco which is quite dense, and Manhattan which is among the most dense in the country - but by no stretch the world (Manila, Philippines has a whopping 111,000 people per square mile).

Higher density is not synonymous with good. But especially as the population of the US and the World continues to swell, I think we need to really start re-thinking tracking homes and stretches of lawns.