ISS030-E-188071 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
Many of China’s cities have grown at tremendous rates, but comparison between a 2012 night time image (above, top) and 2002 day time image (above, lower) taken from the International Space Station provides an indication of how much development has occurred in the Shanghai region over the past 10 years. The official census count in 2000 was 16.4 million; the city population has increased more than 35% since that time. Much of the growth has occurred in new satellite developments like areas to the west of the city (for example, Suzhou).
Shanghai’s history is also colorful. The area started as an agricultural community more than 1,000 years ago. A trading and merchant economy developed, growing into a trading port and exporting cotton, silk, and fertilizer during the 1700s and early 1800s. Shanghai also figured prominently in the First Opium War, and became a British treaty port after the Nanjing Treaty (1842).
The city’s rapid growth and development during the 20th and 21st centuries have come at a cost. Water availability is a key concern, and groundwater withdrawal has resulted in substantial subsidence in and around the city. Because it is built only a few meters above sea level—on the banks of the deltaic estuary of the Yangtze River—curbing subsidence rates is a critical concern.
