Image description
The image shows the Global map with the most illuminated regions, on each continent, at night, when the electricity used to illuminate cities is observed from outer space.
Thus, the most illuminated areas of a continent focus all their electricity on big cities or megalopolises, urban clusters, which also defines their advanced status as urban development, in the field of technology, infrastructure and economy.
The bright agglomerations of capital cities and metropolises are marked on the map with bold dots.
The continents are rendered in blank shapes, inside of which dots are illustrated.
The water of the seas and oceans between the continents is highlighted embossed.
North America, top left, concentrates its electricity in major cities such as Mexico City in Mexico, Toronto and Montreal in Canada and in the United States, cities like New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, on the North Atlantic coast, right of the continent, on the central side Illinois and Chicago, then on the Pacific coast, to the left of the continent, in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego and to the south, in Dallas, Houston, New Orleans.
South America has fewer technologically developed centers, in terms of electricity are visible only the capitals, respectively, on the South Pacific coast, left of the continent, are Lima in Peru, Bogota in Colombia, to the northern side Caracas in Venezuela, to the southern region Santiago in Chile, on the South Atlantic coast, to the right of the continent are Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the major cities of Brazil, Montevideo in Uruguay and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The African continent has the fewest bright regions, due to poorly developed and underdeveloped states, which do not have access to daily needs such as potable water, nor electricity.
The capitals of African states that have a developed economic status and are observable on the map are: in the north, Tangier in Morocco, Tunis in Tunisia, Algiers in Algeria, Cairo in Egypt, then in the west side is Abuja in Nigeria, on the west coast is Nairobi in Kenya, and in the south is Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, next to Johannesburg, and in its southeast is the island of Madagascar.
Europe is the most bright continent, visible from outer space, with the most developed countries with modern megalopolises and capital cities, technologically advanced, like those in the United States and Southeast Asia.
Northern Europe is largely illuminated by capital cities such as Oslo in Norway, Stockholm in Sweden and Helsinki in Finland.
In Western Europe there are important cities such as London in the United Kingdom, Paris in France, Brussels in Belgium, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, then in the southwest, Lisbon in Portugal and Madrid in Spain, to the center of Europe is Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin in Germany, Zagreb in Switzerland, Prague in the Czech Republic, Vienna in Austria, Milan and Rome in Italy.
In Eastern Europe there are Warsaw in Poland, Budapest in Hungary, Bucharest in Romania and Sofia in Bulgaria, then to its edge is Istanbul in Turkey, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan and Chelyabinsk in Russia.
It continues with the most developed countries in the Middle East and Asia, to the west, in the Arabian Peninsula: Riyadh, Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait City in Kuwait, then to the center and south, Delhi and Bangalore in India, the Republic of Singapore in the south east Asia, then to the eastern side is Zhuhai, Honk Kong, Shanghai in China, and on the Pacific coast Kyoto, Nagoya and Tokyo in Japan.
In South Asia, on the right bottom, Australia is illuminated by Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
General information
The development of electric infrastructure and nighttime street lighting systems in a certain area on the globe is directly proportional with the area’s economic and industrial development. Therefore, the richest, most developed countries of the world have the highest amount of night lights, whereas the underdeveloped countries and the small cities are the least lit areas during the nighttime. Apart from the economical and industrial development, another key factor regarding the development of electric infrastructure and nighttime street lighting systems is the geographic location. The uninhabited areas, such as the deserts, are not lit during the night. Also, the extremely high mountain areas, which are as well uninhabited, do not have electric lights at night. Due to the fact that the areas which benefit from corresponding nighttime lights are far more numerous compared to the ones which are less lit, the present map highlights the territories which have less electric lights.
In Europe, among the best lit states during the nighttime are: France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium. Areas which are less lit within the European continent are: North Macedonia, Albania, Lithuania, Estonia and Azerbaijan (a state at the crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, in the Caucasus region).
The best lit state in Africa is Botswana. Apart from it, the rest of the continent is very poorly electrically lit, but there are also many areas where the electric lights are completely absent. Examples of poorly lit states are Tanzania and Angola.
In South America, the best electrically lit state is Brazil. Examples of areas poorly lit within South America are North-Eastern Argentina and Chile.
Examples of places where there are no nighttime lights: Greenland, the Himalaya Mountains, the Sahara Desert and other deserts.
To conclude, it is very important to remember the fact that the less inhabited areas on Earth are the least lit with the help of electric lights during the night. Also, there are areas where electric lighting is totally absent. These areas are the deserts, the high mountains and all the other places where the temperatures and the landforms are not compatible with being inhabited, such as Siberia, Greenland, the oceans and the Himalayas.
Bibliography
- https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal
- https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/reports/cohesion4/pdf/4cr_ro.pdf
- https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_%C8%9B%C4%83rilor_dup%C4%83_indicele_dezvolt%C4%83rii_umane#Dezvoltare_economica_redus%C4%83
- https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_de_Sud
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan
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