Information gathered worldwide by the US agency of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gives us an idea of how urban areas expand and evolve. The period of available data for the “Greater Bay Area” is from 1993 to 2013
The map below shows how Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong changed during this time
If we zoom in to the northern area we can see how Dongguan and Huizhou cities have expanded voraciously from what were once crop fields
In the west, Jiangmen and Zhongshan emerge from the dark of the night into two new bustling cities. A similarly meteoric rise can be seen with Zhuhai, the city neighbouring Macau
By contrast Hong Kong has been quite stable over this period. The most significant change in nighttime lighting was in 1991 when construction of the new airport began
The satellite images below show how the city of Hong Kong has developed. Choose from the options below to witness how other Pearl River Delta cities have evolved over the last three decades