new maps of the world's connectedness

Hours travel

The maps are based on a model which calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water.

The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also considers how factors like altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel.

Plotted onto a map, the results throw up surprises. First, less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city.
 
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/small-world/1

roads to somewhere

 

railways

shippings

navigable rivers

landcover

roads in west Afrika