The Overview Effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface. From this perspective, pattens in nature and human development emerge and you see the world in an entirely different light.

Daily Overview is a new project that was inspired by the Overview Effect. Each day they provide a new satellite image of our planet in an attempt to, “fully appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the things we’ve constructed, the sheer complexity of the systems we’ve developed, or the devastating impact that we’ve had on our planet.”

Using satellite imagery from Apple Maps (powered by DigitalGlobe), Daily Overview has already amassed a fantastic archive. To see the latest, check them out at the links below.

 

 

 

 

Bourtange is a village with a population of 430 in the municipality of Vlagtwedde in the Netherlands. The star fort was built in 1593 during the Eighty Years’ War when William I of Orange wanted to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen. Bourtange was restored to its mid 18th-century state in 1960 and is currently used an open-air museum. [source]

 

 

 

Central Park in New York City spans 843 acres. That’s 6% of the island of Manhattan. [source]

 

 

 

Eixample – a district in the city of Barcelona, Spain – is characterized by its strict grid pattern, octagonal intersections, and apartments with communal courtyards. [source]

 

 

 

 

 

Vineyards swirl on the hills of Huelva, Spain. The climate there is ideal for grape growing with an average temperature of 64 degrees and a relative humidity between 60% and 80%. [source]

 

 

 

 

 

Luecke Farm in Smithville, Texas, USA uses a selective clearing of trees to spell out the surname of its owner “LUECKE.” The distance from the “L” to the “E” is just short of 3 miles. Consequently, NASA uses the text to focus and optimize photographs taken by the Hubble Telescope. [source]

 

 

 

Seaweed farms on Nusa Lembongan – a small island located southeast of Bali, Indonesia – have an average harvest of 50,000 pounds per month. Once the seaweed is extracted from the water, it is dried by the sun for 3-7 days, depending on the season. [source]

 

 

 

Our Lady of Almudena Cemetery in Madrid, Spain is one of the largest cemeteries in the world. The number of gravesites – estimated at five million – is greater than the population of Madrid itself. [source]

 

 

 

 

 

The planned city of La Plata, the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, is characterized by its strict grid pattern. At the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, the new city was awarded two gold medals for the “City of the Future” and “Better performance built.” [source]

 

 

 

These circular patterns occur as crops are watered by overhead sprinklers, which are mounted to motor-driven, rotating towers that distribute water evenly throughout the fields. [source]

 

 

 

Brøndby Haveby, or Brøndby Garden City, is a community located just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Houses with large front yards are centered around cul-de-sacs, providing cramped urban dwellers the opportunity to live outside the city and grow small subsistence or hobby crops during the summer months. [source]