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City Growth A Nouakchott, Mauritania story

Deserts
  1. Earthshots
  2. Nouakchott, Mauritania
  3. City Growth
Description

Nouakchott was a small fishing village for hundreds of years. As recently as 1950, it had only about 200 residents. Drought throughout the 1970s brought migrants to the city, and its population swelled to about 150,000 in 1980. It now has just over 1 million people, and its urbanized area has changed from 5 km2 in 1965 to 150 km2 in 2016.

A 1965 close-up of Nouakchott from the Corona satellite shows the extent of the city at that time. Since then, the city’s expansion has been horizontal, spreading outward. Much of city’s urban growth occurs in informal settlements, which can be seen in the later Landsat images in the varying patterns of urban areas. Streets go in multiple directions and sprawl unevenly across the desert from the city’s center.

This may be against conventional wisdom, but this growing city in the desert is at high risk for flooding. The city is mostly below sea level and vulnerable to rising groundwater levels, seawater intrusions, porous soils, sand extractions, and heavy rains in low-lying areas.

In recent years, the number of rainy days has been increasing. The biggest problem is that a large amount of rain can fall in a short period of time. Since the groundwater level is high, and the type of soil there is not very good at absorbing even a small amount of rain water, rain cannot infiltrate into the ground. These factors lead to a city at high risk. In fact, heavy rains in August 2013 caused flooding in Nouakchott and south-central Mauritania.

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Location

Dec. 26, 1965, Corona KH-4A 1028 — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Dec. 26, 1965, Corona KH-4A 1028 — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 25, 1973, Landsat 1 (path/row 220/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 25, 1973, Landsat 1 (path/row 220/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 30, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 30, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 29, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 29, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 13, 1995, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 13, 1995, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 21, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 21, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

July 2, 2009, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

July 2, 2009, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 30, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Sep. 30, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 6, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Aug. 6, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

July 30, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

July 30, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Dec. 26, 1965, Corona KH-4A 1028 — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Sep. 25, 1973, Landsat 1 (path/row 220/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Aug. 30, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/48) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Sep. 29, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Aug. 13, 1995, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Aug. 21, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
July 2, 2009, Landsat 5 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Sep. 30, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
Aug. 6, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania
July 30, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 205/47) — Nouakchott, Mauritania

Nouakchott, Mauritania Additional Imagery & Stories

New Airport
New Airport

Nouakchott’s airport is visible as the straight diagonal line near the city’s center in the images in the other subsections. Over the time series of i...

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Re-greening
Re-greening

Nouakchott is surrounded by a succession of sand dune belts, some of which are highly mobile and can reach 20 m high. North and east of the city, a gr...

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