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Comment by non-nil | Hacker News Reader

This primarily seems like a matter of definitions, no? Humans congregate, so villages tend to expand over time. Apparently there are different definitions to what an urban area is around the world, which to me seems kind of reasonable in itself as conditions vary.

But yeah, if you take photos from space, it clearly shows most of Earth's land area isn't actually occupied by humans dwelling there. Most of the humans have apparently congregated into what we now like to call urban areas, for which there may or may not be a new definition. Great.

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Definitions do have implications but, yeah.

A lot of people hear urban and think Manhattan, San Francisco, central London, etc. The reality in the US (where 80% of the population is "urban") is heavily suburban. The town where I live surrounded by 100 acres with 2 or 3 other houses is also considered urban. I'm not going to be walking to a corner grocery store or taking mass transit anywhere.

> The town where I live surrounded by 100 acres with 2 or 3 other houses is also considered urban

That’s not urban. US gov defines <1000/sq mi as rural. This works out to about 2/3 acre/person. So either you live in a rural town or there is a much denser part of the town offsetting your hundred acres.

Definitions are usually important though, because they show up whenever one speaks of rights for example.

The context Lewis Dijkstra operates in is that of global development goals, so trying to improve the lives of people across the world by seeing who has it bad. Obviously having varying definitions is simply fatal to that effort.

He explains: > For example, a narrow definition focussed on the city centre will lead to poor scores on air quality and the presence of open or green space, but it will give better scores for access to public transport. Also measuring changes over time will be influenced by where the boundary is drawn as most growth occurs at the fringes of a city.

https://unhabitat.org/the-tale-of-broadville-and-narrowtown-...

The first time I flew in an airplane, from North Carolina to Michigan, I was amazed that I saw no portion of land that was completely undeveloped.

You're flying over a lot of farm country on that route. Fly over large portions of the West and large areas are much more sparse (though you still see roads, etc.)

I was amazed when I flew into Phoenix at night that so much of the desert was completely undeveloped. Like at night once you get outside the city it's just absolute blackness. It was so dark I thought we were over a lake or something.

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