3  Arizona

Urban Areas

Arizona, the Grand Canyon State. The main urban areas of the state dominate this map, literally casting long shadows across unpopulated land. The greater Pheonix area sprawls while still maintining a clear start boundary with the surrounding unpopulated land.

To the southwest of Pheonix is Tuscon, the other notable population center. Outside of those two, there are a number of small blips, but all the population clusters are confined to an area surrounded by unpopulated land.

Concrete Rivers

Aside from the urban areas, the next characteristic that jumps out of this map is the serpentine pattern the population forms, not unlike rivers across a landscape.