(1/15) Today @matthew_daniels examines the notion of “population mountains.” Read the full article in the link below, and you can also follow along with Matt’s observations in this tweet thread. pudding.cool/2018/12/3d-cit…
(2/15) Here is New York City, a region of 18 million people. Each dot represents 1,000 square meters. Deeper shades of red represent more people. 
(3/15) There’s another way to look at NYC’s population. Let's grow each dot into a 3D block. The taller the block, the more people. NYC's population now resembles a mountainous terrain.
(4/15) If we zoom out to view the entire world, it looks different than you might expect.
(5/15) From my (@matthew_daniels's) perspective (albeit a US-centric one), it was eye-opening to see how the world’s population is so unevenly distributed. For example, compare the West Coast of the United States to Java, an island in Indonesia (home to 140 million people).
(6/15) What stands out is each city’s form, a unique mountain that might be like the steep peaks of lower Manhattan or the sprawling hills of suburban Atlanta. (The following images are all at a comparable scale)
(7/15) When I first saw a city in 3D, I had a feel for its population size that I had never experienced before. That feeling goes a long way to improve my (@matthew_daniels) own geographic instincts. Here is an overhead shot of Singapore (top) compared to a 3D view (bottom).
(8/15) In 1993, there were 14 cities with over 10 million people. Today, 20 additional cities qualify (and another 11 will by 2030), with many sprouting from farmland in our lifetimes.
(9/15) Among them is Kinshasa, DR Congo (13.1M people), which I now know to be bigger than historically populous cities. Yet it wasn’t until I saw the population as a form, rather than a number, that I could appreciate how large Kinshasa had become.
(10/15) The 3D view left me with a better understanding of the world’s center of “human” mass, especially the weight of Africa and Asia. First, let’s tour a few cities, giving you a sense of what 8-10 million people “looks like.”
(11/15) Luanda, Angola (7.7M people)
(12/15) Dar es Salaam (6M people, and will reach 10M by 2030. Twenty years ago, the city was just 2 million in size.
(13/15) Bengaluru, India (11.4M people). The population density of India is easier to see in this image, with Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) surrounded by incredibly dense urban settlements.
(14/15) Pearl River Delta, China (50M-100M people). This is actually three cities: Hong Kong (7.4M people), Shenzhen (11.9M), Guangzhou (12.6M). Rapid growth has linked all the surrounding cities with contiguous urban density.
(15/15) Tianjin, China (13.2M people) is situated 70 miles southeast of Beijing and the Chinese government is planning a new nearby city, Xiongan, to complete the Jing-Jin-Ji mega-region, which will be one big megalopolis with over 100 million people.
