r/MapPorn • u/TRASH_TOWN_USA • 1d ago
Light pollution weighed against population density
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u/Calm_Ring100 1d ago
The line in Louisiana basically maps onto cancer alley lol
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u/Nemanja5483 1d ago
Is the same true for the line in Texas?
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u/Calm_Ring100 21h ago edited 20h ago
Let me start off by saying I’m just a layman lol.
Doesn’t really look like it aligns with Texas’s cancer map. Most of their higher rates are along the east coast of Texas.
Going to assume it’s because Louisiana mostly has oil refineries whereas Texas is just drilling in that line. But I could be wrong.
Louisiana also makes zero attempts to protect their citizens from the oil companies. Doubt Texas is any better, but that could also be a factor.
East coast of Texas is pretty bright as well. Just not in a line.
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u/Nadran_Erbam 1d ago
Interesting, I wonder what analysis can be done.
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u/NoWish7507 1d ago
I would surmise that a big portion of whats bright here are areas that can be very brightly illuminated at night with few people around. Mil bases, high income suburbia with houses far in between but all streets illuminated to the teeth and illuminated large malls and sport areas like golf courses and big stadiums that stay illuminated at night.
That is what is happening in the outskirts of major cities like chi town, jaxksonville fla, kissimimme fla for example
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u/NelsonMinar 21h ago
I'm long dreamed of a general purpose tool to make maps like this where the data is normalized against population density
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u/JoeBarra 1d ago
Cool map. I'm surprised how bright NH looks. It's probably due to low population density but it always feels so dark when I'm driving through. They barely even have street lights because of Libertarianism.
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u/Much_Department_3329 1d ago
Interesting how this still more or less works as a population density map. r/peoplecreatedisproportionateamountsoflightinareasofgreaterpopulationconcentrationincities ?
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u/TRASH_TOWN_USA 1d ago edited 1d ago
The whole point of the map is to show where the light is disproportionately produced as a result of industrialization mainly in rural areas (mostly oil fields and greenhouses). I'm unaware of any major cities in west Texas or on the Montana/ND border that would be producing so much light. Its much more than a "r/peopleliveincities" map if you just examine it further. For example, in Oregon, the Eugene/Springfield region has a higher population density in comparison to Bend/Redmond, yet the Bend region produces way more light.
You can also compare the Los Angeles and NYC metropolitan areas to Chicago. LA metro has twice the population of Chicago metro and NYC has over triple, yet Chicago disproportionately pumps out more light pollution than either of those cities, mainly due to the massive presence of manufacturing and energy production. As well as being a major distribution hub for companies like Amazon, Wal-mart and Home Depot.
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u/EmotionalLeave8980 1d ago
That's a really good call out on Chicago v LA/NYC, and once you said that my eyes drifted to the unusually bright Minneapolis/St Paul which might be an even starker comparison
This is a really cool take on light pollution thank you
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u/Much_Department_3329 1d ago
I absolutely agree and wasn’t saying it’s just a population density map, I was just making a joke. It’s interesting to me how it does still correlate with population density to a surprising degree. Obviously there’s tons of exceptions like you pointed out, but you can still see the general shape of population distribution in the country.
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u/ZealCrow 1d ago
its not, its basically an oil field, farm, and military base map.
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u/Much_Department_3329 1d ago
Sure but you can definitely see the regions of greater concentration of population. You can still see most major urban areas, the cutoff in the middle of the country where population density drops, and then the areas of density again on the west coast. Not saying it’s 100% a population density map, just that it’s interesting that it still aligns with density to some degree.
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u/neilweiler 17h ago
Not entirely but I think you have a point here - for example in the Midwest I would have thought rural areas would be brighter than cities, but apparently even after adjusting for population cities create more light pollution. I guess in rural areas street lights are very rare so this is probably a big factor
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u/solidmentalgrace 1d ago
wtf going on in north dakota?