Google timelapse shows how B.C. cities have grown, glaciers have retreated

Google's latest mapping technology, Timelapse, shows how the Earth has visibly changed in the last three decades. 

The media giant combined more than five million satellite images acquired from 1984 to 2016 by five different satellites. The technology shows how cities have expanded, glaciers have melted and forests in B.C. have disappeared.

Vancouver

British Columbia's population has increased by nearly two-thirds since 1984, says BC Stats, from 2.9 million to approximately 4.7 million today. 

As a result of this growth, you can see how individual cities have developed, with roads and buildings stretching out where trees or undeveloped land once stood.  

In Vancouver, watch as the area around False Creek fills in after Expo 86.

Click play to start the timelapse and pause to stop on any given year. You can also change the speed of the timelapse.

North Vancouver

See how the city expands its borders over the 30-year period.

UBC

The UBC campus and the Endowment Lands show plenty of housing development and real estate development, especially in the last decade.

Victoria

Victoria expands to the west and the north. 

Coquitlam

Coquitlam has grown dramatically in the last three decades, showing just why the Evergeen Line expansion was needed.

Surrey

Green space gives way to urban development in Surrey. 

Klinaklini Glacier

There are more than 17,000 glaciers in B.C. but each year 22 billion cubic metres of water permanently melt away from them. That's the equivalent of filling the B.C. Place Stadium with water 8,300 times.

Klinaklini Glacier, the largest in the province, can be seen slowly disappearing over the decades on the map.  

Robson Glacier

The glacier on B.C.'s Mt. Robson, the tallest mountain in the Rockies, can be seen visibly retreating. 

Athabasca Glacier

Just on the other side of the B.C.-Alberta border, the Athabasca Glacier is also visibly pulling back.

The Chelaslie Arm wildfires

The Chelaslie Arm wildfires during the summer of 2014 were the biggest in British Columbia in more than three decades. More than 133,098 hectares of land were destroyed. Watch the map turn reddish-brown just after the fires.