Locations | REALRURAL

INTRODUCTION

Mountains, Valleys and Plains

Maps are often used to delineate what is rural from what is not, but simply color-coding counties by population doesn’t work in the diverse landscape of California. In this evolving work, we offer new maps that focus on the experience of being in a rural place, using visual language rather than statistics.

WORKING LANDS

Cropland in green, grassland in blue

Note that because this map is drawn from surveys of land cover rather than land use, there is more rangeland than the blue areas show, but it is largely in forest. Consider this instead a map of the agricultural landscape: the colored parts are where you will see food plants growing and livestock grazing.

CITY LIGHTS

Nighttime sky over California

One of the pleasures of being "in the country" is having a night sky so dark that countless stars are visible; afterwards, the city sky can seem bright even at midnight. Here, mapping the concentration of light offers a different view of population density.