For the Instructor
These student materials complement the Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.Density of People and Property (Continued)
While night light maps can be helpful tool for evaluating exposure to coastal hazards in more developed countries such as the United States, they are not always an appropriate measure of the density of people and property. Compare the map below of global population density with the "night light" map below.
Credit: United Nations Environment Programme, Global Environmental Alert Service Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical - CIAT. 2005. Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3): Population Density Grid, Future Estimates. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://dx.doi.org/10.7927/H4ST7MRB Accessed January 21, 2016.
Credit: NASA: Night Lights 2012
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Question 1 - Essay
Which continents have high population density, but dark night lights?
Question 2 - Essay
Why do you think that these measures of density are different in these places?
Question 3 - Essay
What implications might this have for assessing exposure of these places to coastal hazards?