New satellite images released by NASA reveal just how much the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has changed in just two decades as a result of urban expansion.
In a stunning visual comparison, satellite images taken 23 years apart—by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2001 and the Landsat 8 satellite in 2024—highlight the transformation of Chattanooga from a mid-sized manufacturing town into a sprawling metropolitan area.
Located along the Tennessee River, the once lightly populated outskirts now hum with new residential developments, shopping centers and industrial parks.
According to NASA, the city’s population has climbed from approximately 350,000 in 2001 to 437,000 in 2024—a 25 percent increase. Much of this growth is concentrated in the city’s northeastern and southeastern areas, especially along Interstate 75 and near the Tennessee–Georgia state line.
“New development is often tied to major roadways,” NASA said in a statement, “and tends to expand east of the Tennessee River and Chickamauga Reservoir due to the mountainous terrain to the west.”
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A key driver of this expansion is Chattanooga’s manufacturing sector, which has rebounded sharply after a prolonged slump.
According to the Greater Chattanooga Economic Partnership (GECP) 129 projects have been completed since 2020, 11,836 jobs created and $4.8 billion invested in the town.
Employment in durable goods manufacturing has nearly doubled since 2010. Employment in non-durable goods manufacturing has nearly doubled since 2009, reaching over 25,000 jobs in 2023, according to a report from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
One of the large new developments in the satellite image is the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant, which spans 3.8 million square feet including a 564,000-square-foot area for electric vehicle production and 198,000-square-foot plant for EV battery packs. This plant alone employed around 5,500 people according to 2023 figures.
As job opportunities have grown, so has the population. In response to this, housing has been a big part of development in the town. Even in the last three years significant new housing has been created. In Fall 2023, 56 townhouses were finished in midtown Chattanooga, while a 344-unit luxury apartment complex began leasing units in early 2025.
But as jobs and homes have been created, there have been losses too. A 2023 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga study using GIS and remote sensing found that there was a 43 percent loss of urban tree canopy (equivalent to over 37 square miles).
This has in turn created a 134 percent increase in urban land area (approximately 33 square miles) between 1984 and 2021. But this leads to more impervious surfaces like roads and rooftops, sometimes contributing to problems with flooding and water quality.