Copenhagen, Denmark

Often described as one of the world’s best cities to live, Copenhagen is growing steadily. That growth comes with challenges to keep it a desirable place to live.

In these false-color Landsat images, the urban areas of Copenhagen are shades of purple. Vegetation appears green, and farmland appears bright green when crops are growing and pink when the fields are fallow.

The Øresund Strait separates Copenhagen from Malmö, Sweden. The strait and other water bodies appear black.

In the time that these images span, the population of Copenhagen has grown from 478,615 in 1985 to 580,184 in 2015. But the population of greater Copenhagen in 2014 was 1,246,611, up from 1,084,885 in 2006.

Imagery

Every picture has a story to tell

June 1, 1985, Landsat 5 (path/row 194/21) — Copenhagen, Denmark

July 12, 1994, Landsat 5 (path/row 194/21) — Copenhagen, Denmark

June 21, 1998, Landsat 5 (path/row 194/21) — Copenhagen, Denmark

July 7, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 194/21) — Copenhagen, Denmark

June 17, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 194/21) — Copenhagen, Denmark

Correlated

Additional story information

Downloads

Knowles, Richard D., 2012, Transit Oriented Development in Copenhagen, Denmark: from the Finger Plan to Ørestad: Journal of Transport Geography, v. 22, p. 251–261.

Maternoski, John M., 2013, Urban Growth in Copenhagen—Addressing Challenges through Regional Urban Design: University of Oregon, available online at https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/13030?show=full. (Accessed December 22, 2014.)

NASA, 2006, Oresund Bridge: NASA Earth Observatory, available at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6325. (Accessed December 22, 2014.)

Nordhavn, [n.d.], Why Have Urban Development in Nordhavn: Nordhavn Web page at http://www.nordhavnen.dk/english/uk-nh-vision/uk-nh-whyhaveurbandevelopment.aspx. (Accessed January 8, 2015.)

Øresundsbron, [n.d.], Welcome to the Øresund Bridge: Øresundsbron Web page at http://uk.oresundsbron.com/page/1087. (Accessed December 22, 2014.)

Saundry, P., 2013, Danish Straits: The Encyclopedia of Earth, available at https://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Danish_Straits. (Accessed January 8, 2015.)

Selbert, Roger, 2008, Sprawl Is Ubiquitous, Even in My Beloved Copenhagen: New Geography Web page at http://www.newgeography.com/content/00337-sprawl-ubiquitous-even-my-beloved-copenhagen. (Accessed December 22, 2014.)

Statistics Denmark, 2015, Statistics Denmark Web site at http://statistikbanken.dk/statbank5a/default.asp?w=768. (Accessed February 23, 2015.)