Watch Halifax sprawl over nearly 30 years

New Timelapse satellite mapping project is way compelling.

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Timelapse is an amazing new project from Google, Time magazine, NASA et al, that's basically Google Earth animated with satellite photos from 1984 to 2012. In case you don't get how watchable that is, the Timelapse lords suggest you check out cities that have experience development on steroids over the last 30 years, like Dubai and Las Vegas. But just as with Google Earth, you can focus on anyplace you like, so I made this GIF of Halifax.

The peninsula doesn't change much, but it's easy to see the creep of development in the 'burbs. Seeing the scope of the sprawl makes it easier to understand how that recent Stantec report can justify its conclusion that the city could save $3 billion in coming years by pushing development in a higher-density direction.

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Kyle Shaw

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Kyle is the editor of The Coast. He was a founding member of the newspaper in 1993 and was the paper’s first publisher. Kyle occasionally teaches creative nonfiction writing (think magazine-style #longreads) and copy editing at the University of King’s College School of Journalism.