[HN Gopher] Where is the most densely populated square kilometre...
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       Where is the most densely populated square kilometre in the UK?
       (2023)
        
       Author : fanf2
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2024-07-11 14:42 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.statsmapsnpix.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.statsmapsnpix.com)
        
       | Svip wrote:
       | I wonder if it would be possible to find an even more populated
       | square km, if one started turning it.
        
         | KeplerBoy wrote:
         | You certainly would.
         | 
         | Just think how insanely unlikely it would be for this not to be
         | the case.
         | 
         | One could also increase the density by allowing non square
         | shapes or squares not fixed on the grid and so on. A more
         | general approach would always lead to slightly higher scores.
        
           | jl6 wrote:
           | > non square shapes
           | 
           | Perhaps something akin to a Hilbert curve that snakes around
           | the whole country encompassing every individual person's
           | footprints but otherwise covers almost-zero area.
        
             | KeplerBoy wrote:
             | Sure, but thats a trivial solution. Exploring convex shapes
             | however could lead to some interesting insights.
        
           | hiddew wrote:
           | Yes, a grid system like H3 https://www.uber.com/en-
           | NL/blog/h3/ is is closer to a circle in shape. One of the
           | reasons for Uber to use H3 is bacause density maps look more
           | natural in hexagonal shapes. It would be interesting to see
           | the answer for H3 hexes.
        
         | ghghgfdfgh wrote:
         | It would have been better if they looked for the densest circle
         | with an area of 1 square km. Although a square shaped area has
         | its tangible benefits - you "feel" population density more when
         | it's on your own street obviously, and since square areas
         | provide more information along a few axes (the ones containing
         | the corners), you can get an idea of the population density in
         | an area by placing a square's corners on the street. A square
         | is probably not the best shape for this, though.
        
       | Duanemclemore wrote:
       | Before I even clocked on this I knew it would be in Tower
       | Hamlets, famous for being the most densely populated council in
       | the UK...
       | 
       | I wonder what a quadtree based approach would look like. I
       | mean... I'd almost guarantee you're going to wind up in Tower
       | Hamlets again. So the question of how much it costs to optimize
       | for so little is there. But still, interesting alternative method
       | for someone to gnaw on if they wanted.
        
         | fifilura wrote:
         | How i would do it:
         | 
         | 1. Create a table with quad tiles of appropriate size/level as
         | Parquet. Put it in s3 and map it as a table in AWS Athena
         | (Trino)
         | 
         | 2. Put the census data in s3/Athena.
         | 
         | 3. Join using Trino geospatial functions.
         | https://trino.io/docs/current/functions/geospatial.html
         | 
         | The result for all quad tiles will be there within a couple of
         | minutes.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | Why though? We're talking about much less than a million
           | geothings here. Any laptop can process this much data at
           | interactive speeds.
        
             | fifilura wrote:
             | True.
             | 
             | 0. Look at data size.
        
       | fifilura wrote:
       | I am trying to understand if the source data also provides the
       | population weighted centroid. I guess it has to.no way to
       | calculate that.
       | 
       | It would be interesting to know what tools were used for running
       | the calculation.
        
       | walthamstow wrote:
       | One of the great things about London is that almost all of the 63
       | 1km squares they highlight here contain a decent size park or
       | other green space
        
         | macintux wrote:
         | I'd be curious how many of those spaces were open to the public
         | 100 years ago.
         | 
         | J. Draper uploaded a remarkably interesting video recently
         | about railings and green space in London.
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/JHvKvOUSor4
        
       | GaggiX wrote:
       | Now I wonder what would be the most densely populated square
       | kilometer in the world instead. I would imagine something like in
       | Hong Kong.
        
         | Duanemclemore wrote:
         | I think so - or Singapore. Maybe Mumbai. Once upon a time
         | called last year maybe a sqkm of Gaza would sneak in.
        
         | snicky wrote:
         | Once I've heard that Mong Kok area was the most densely
         | populated neighbourhood in the world.
        
         | HPsquared wrote:
         | Kowloon Walled City will forever hold the record, I think.
         | Density of 1.9M per square km. (Before it was demolished of
         | course)
        
           | arethuza wrote:
           | Wasn't that just because it was tiny (0.026 square kilometre)
           | and a population of 35,000? I think for a discussion about
           | "most densely populated square kilometres" we should actually
           | be talking about square kilometres?
        
             | HPsquared wrote:
             | Fair enough. That 0.026 sq.km. has more people living in it
             | than the most densely populated full sq.km. in the UK
             | though, which must count for something. I wonder what the
             | population of the square kilometre centred on KWC is/was.
        
           | Georgelemental wrote:
           | But the city was much smaller than 1km2, so doesn't qualify
        
         | pydry wrote:
         | Probably lalbagh in dhaka. ~170,000 per sq km.
        
         | fragmede wrote:
         | No need to guess,
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_popul...
         | puts Manilla at the top of the list.
        
           | GaggiX wrote:
           | I asked for the most densely populated square kilometer, not
           | the most densely populated city. A city's population can be
           | spread out evenly or concentrated in a few areas.
        
       | arethuza wrote:
       | Interesting to note that for off the reputation of the UK as
       | being all densely populated we actually still have more area of
       | peat bogs (9.4%) and moors and heathland (7.5%) as urban fabric
       | (~5.5%):
       | 
       | https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_Land_Co...
       | 
       | Edit: Direct link to a map:
       | https://orda.shef.ac.uk/articles/dataset/A_Land_Cover_Atlas_...
       | 
       | Edit2: That pastures are the top use (28.7%) maybe explains why
       | "England's green and pleasant land" is justified! (And I say that
       | as a Scot!)
        
       | pjs_ wrote:
       | https://youtu.be/GELhFB-f8hQ?feature=shared
        
         | fragmede wrote:
         | Is Bow E3 - Wiley - Topic what you meant to link?
        
           | pjs_ wrote:
           | Absolutely. The single most lyrically gifted grime MC hails
           | from the single most densely populated area of the UK -
           | Bayesians rejoice
        
       | andrewaylett wrote:
       | Random squares is absolutely not cheating -- if you really
       | _really_ want a grid, you can always draw one out from the square
       | you found.
       | 
       | Indeed, _not_ picking the grid that gives you the best answer
       | might be considered cheating :). Unless you 're explicitly going
       | for OS grid reference square kilometres, which the first grid may
       | have been -- but I see no evidence that the author did so.
       | 
       | And if you want to really not cheat, you probably need to
       | consider rotating your grid too.
       | 
       | All that said, I concur that it probably doesn't change the
       | result very much. I'm just slightly disappointed that the author
       | thought that improving his method to get a more correct answer
       | was "cheating".
        
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