Urban Growth in Nouakchott, Mauritania

  • Released Tuesday, April 28, 2026
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Nouakchott, Mauritania rapidly expanded its urban footprint from 1984 to 2026, driven by a surge in population from 278,000 to 1.7 million. This growing city is continually threatened by creeping Saharan sand dunes at its city limits. The two time series below reveal this dramatic transformation using both natural-color and urban infrared-color satellite imagery.

A natural-color Landsat time series of Nouakchott spanning from 1984 to 2026, highlighting massive urban expansion over time.

An urban false-color Landsat time series of Nouakchott spanning from 1985 to 2026, utilizing shortwave-infrared and red bands to clearly distinguish human-made infrastructure from the surrounding landscape.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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This page was originally published on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 2:55 PM EDT.