Reflections of global cities and on the connections between them

Abstract

The modern society beacons a visible trace at the night sky. The sources of these blips are growing into massive entities. Global cities are often explored according to their inner characteristics and their relative importance to the world economy. As the societies are becoming more interconnected international air traffic is also becoming more vital. Air traffic can be seen as a concrete expression of the network society. In this review I use GIS- and statistical methods to demonstrate the relation between the night-time brightness of a city area and the average distance of direct scheduled flights. This relation also depends on the infrastructure of the city’s international airport. In addition the study illustrates the extent of developed city-regions where one could expect a need for long-haul international flights to exist. The analysis shows that New York-Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Greater Tokyo are top city-regions, or megalopolises, in the brightness hierarchy. Nevertheless, it is highlighted that for historical and cultural reasons the most important service enterprises are not always located in the most luminous city-regions.