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Urban Areas

Sinuiju City

Pynogyang

Pyongyang vs. Seoul

In 2011 Kalin Werner and Sarah Lisker used a variety of remote sensing data to understand how a nation’s level of political and administrative transparency can affect development. The case study they used was to compare the urban areas of Pyongyang, North Korea to Seoul, South Korea. While the two cities are similar physical, they differ in their political systems. North Korea is a single party with a centrally planned industrial economy compared to South Korea which is a free market, democratic and capitalism country. The remote sensing imagery used was from the years 1989 to 2001. The different remote sensing data used was visual and thermal imagery from Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Thermal imagery was also used from MODIS and AVHRR..

These two images show Pyongyang and Seoul in visible light. The images came from the Landsat 7’s Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Werner and Lisker concluded that Pyongyang was less expensive city because it had more green space than Seoul. 

These two images show the NDVI for Pyongyang and Seoul in visible light. Werner and Lisker concluded that these images show the opposite from before and that Seoul has more green area in than Pyongyang.  
 

These two images show the change in NDVI images from 1989 and 2001. Blue represents a change decrease in green and red represents an increase in greenness. Those images show that Pyongyang is losing greenness, while Seoul is gaining greenness.
 

These two images are thermal images of Pyongyang and Seoul. The Red represents the warmest value while thistle and blue represent the cooler areas. While Pyongyang warmer areas are in the center of the city, Seoul warmer areas more spread out east and west. This image of Pyongyang shows the industrial sector is in the middle of the city. Seoul’s image shows that industrial sectors are more spread out in the city.

Remote Sensing is used to monitor urban areas to understand the infrustructure and economic activity of a country. 

Sinuiju City is located in the northwest of North Korea and borders China. As the rest of the country is struggle economically, Sinuiju City has several industrials that are still operating. Also Sinuiju City has a major rail yard for passenger and freight trains that travel between Beijing and Pyongyang.  

Pynogyang is the capital of North Korea and the biggest city in the country. It it is where must of North Korea's industries are. 

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