Borders From Above Are More Than Just Lines On A Map

Can you identify two countries, side-by-side, just by their urban and agricultural patterns of development? As Emily Gilbert writes in Medium, viewing international borders from above can provide visual evidence of starkly different levels of economic and political systems. Farming practices on either side of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic give cues about the wealth disparities between the two neighboring countries.

Using satellite images, Gilbert also notes the inventive infrastructural changes needed when two countries meet where road rules require drivers to switch what side of the road they drive on, such as the switch-over between Hong Kong and mainland China.

At borders, different laws, politics, and cultures come together. These disparities can manifest in many ways we can see from space. Countries can regulate many aspects of our daily lives, including one of the most mundane parts — our daily commutes. Different nations have different laws about which side of the road we drive on. We can see several instances where these laws change over borders, and it is interesting to look at the inventive infrastructure that has been developed to handle the lane switch.