A false-colour satellite image of the Pearl River Delta in 2003, with extensive grey urban surfaces spreading around blue-green waterways and between red hills.

10 January 2003 · False-colour Landsat satellite image

Urbanization of the Pearl River Delta, 10 January 2003

Jesse Allen, using Landsat 7 ETM+ data provided by the Landsat Project Science Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Why it matters

Paired with the 1979 observation, this image makes reform visible as expanded roads, buildings, and paved surfaces. It also preserves what the “world factory” shorthand tends to suppress: production remade a watershed and climate as well as a trade balance.

Publication
NASA Earth Observatory
Holding institution
NASA Earth Observatory
Shelfmark
Image of the Day 7949; pearlriver_l7_2003010_lrg.jpg
Rights
Public domain NASA and USGS Landsat imagery; acknowledgement requested

Allen, Jesse. Urbanization of the Pearl River Delta, 10 January 2003. Landsat 7 ETM+ false-colour image. NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day 7949.