Astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) are witnesses of a global trend.
At night and when visibility is good,
they see the world’s cities as patches of light in the dark expanse of uninhabited terrain.
And those patches are growing, as the dark areas shrink – a sign of advancing urbanisation.
In 2012, 71 percent of Europe’s population lived in an urban environment (Source:Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung); the global figure was 51 percent – and rising