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Comparing Maps 2

Finally there is the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's
2001 Global Population Database.
. Like all the others shown it is compiled on a 30sec grid. It is based on census counts at sub-national levels. However, the grid cells do not just display these: the counts are adjusted by statistical formulas to take account of proximity to roads,slope, landcover, stable lights, etc. The idea is not only to display the distribution of residential population, but also to get an idea of the global whereabouts of ambient (travelling) people. The maps give a statistical idea where people really are at a given moment in time. They could be used in the case of disasters, epidemics, etc.
When zooming in e.g. to the Low Countries (with Paris and London in the corners), you see a uniform, very dense population
. Zooming in further lightens up the big urban conglomerations, the Randstad in Holland, the Brussels-Antwerp region in Belgium, and the Ruhr region in Germany
. Note by the way how much light comes out of Belgium
. Zooming in further on Belgium shows Brussels and Antwerp in the West, the Maastricht-Liege-Aachen region in the east, and the sparsely populated Ardennes in the south
. Mark especially the visibility of the roads in the north. The similarity with the "stable lights" map of the same region is of course very great
.
This is not always the case however. Take for example this "stable lights" map
. Can you guess where it is? When you see the population map of this same region
, you won't have much trouble recognizing it. It says something about the way energy is being consumed all over the world.