Between 1990 and 2000, every fourth city in the world was shrinking - and this tendency is on the rise. Which cities are shrinking? Where are these cities? Which processes form the basis for this trend?With about thirty world maps, fifty diagrams, thirty portraits of cities, fifteen encyclopedic essays, and an index of cities, the Atlas of Shrinking Cities documents this global phenomenon, while the book's innovative graphics make it visually comprehensible as well.Four chapters of maps, illustrations, and statistics explain the reasons why cities are shrinking, which range from demographic developments and migration flows to increasingly limited resources, the destruction of nature, and the way that the character of human settlements is changing. Case studies of shrinking cities on all continents shed light on the real effects of the global transformation process. The index shows population development over the past fifty years in all cities of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants.Best-Designed Swiss Book Prize, 2006.