Assessing nighttime lights for mapping the urban areas of 50 cities across the globe

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1097-1114
Author(s):  
Hasi Bagan ◽  
Habura Borjigin ◽  
Yoshiki Yamagata
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Grid Cell ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Nighttime Lights ◽  
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Meteorological Satellite

Nighttime data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System have been widely used to map urban/built-up areas (hereafter referred to as “built-up area”), but to date there has not been a geographically comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of using nighttime lights data to map urban areas. We created accurate, convenient, and scalable grid cells based on Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System nighttime light pixels. We then calculated the density of Landsat-derived built-up areas within each grid cell. We explored the relationship between Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System nighttime lights data and the density of built-up areas to assess the utility of nighttime lights for mapping urban areas in 50 cities across the globe. We found that the brightness of nighttime lights was only in moderate agreement with the density of built-up areas; moreover, correlations between nighttime lights and Landsat-derived built-up areas were weak. Even in relatively sparsely populated urban regions (where the density of the built-up area is less than 20%), the highest correlation coefficient ( R2) was only 0.4. Furthermore, nighttime lights showed lighted areas that extended beyond the area of large cities, and nighttime lights reduced the area of small cities. The results suggest that it is difficult to use the regression model to calibrate the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System nighttime lights to fit urban built up areas.

Measuring the regional non-observed economy in China with nighttime lights

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Menggen Chen ◽  
Shuai Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Middle Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Nighttime Lights ◽  
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program ◽  
Nighttime Light Data ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
Average Size ◽  
Meteorological Satellite

PurposeThe non-observed economy (NOE) is a pervasive phenomenon worldwide, especially in developing countries, but the size of the NOE and its contributions to the overall economy are usually unknown. This paper presents an estimation of the average size of the NOE for the 31 provincial regions in China between 1992 and 2013.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime light data combined with 11 existing surveys on or measurements of NOE for 191 countries or regions throughout the world, to measure the size of the NOE.FindingsThe results show that the NOE share is unevenly distributed among China's provincial regions, with the smallest being 3.19% for Beijing and the largest being 69.71% for Ningxia. The national average is 43.11%, while the figures for the eastern region, middle region, northeastern region and western region are 39.3%, 47.6%, 44.7% and 43.6%, respectively. The NOE estimates are negatively correlated with the measured gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita, which suggests that developed regions tend to have less NOE.Originality/valueThe nighttime lights are used to measure the NOE for China's provincial regions. Compared with traditional databases, one of the prominent features of nighttime lights is its objectivity, as there is little human interference; therefore, it can be used to achieve more accurate results.

scholarly journals Identifying and Correcting Signal Shift in DMSP-OLS Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2219
Author(s):  
Konstantin Ash ◽  
Kevin Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Control Points ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program ◽  
Nighttime Light Data ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Meteorological Satellite ◽  
Scientific Fields

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime light data has become a key tool of the environmental and social scientific fields, but suffers from several validity problems. We highlight one such problem—shifts in the digital number position in DMSP-OLS composites in the same satellite. We present techniques for identifying the problem, using moving window raster correlation and visual inspection, and for solving the problem, by assigning control points and manually shifting raster positions. To illustrate the importance of accounting for signal shift, we re-examine a recent analysis of the relationship between public goods provision and patterns of violence in the 2011 Syrian uprising and ensuing civil war. We find the statistical results change considerably when correcting for signal shift. We attribute this change to the systematic undercounting of light intensity in heavily populated areas. We close by identifying the types of research that would most benefit from our correction and suggest future refinements to our technique through automation.

scholarly journals Assessing the Ability of Luojia 1-01 Imagery to Detect Feeble Nighttime Lights

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
pp. 3708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li ◽  
Liu ◽  
Chen ◽  
Sun
Keyword(s):  
Infrared Imaging ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Application Research ◽  
Threshold Method ◽  
Minimum Area ◽  
Nighttime Lights ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Meteorological Satellite ◽  
Cutoff Threshold

The Luojia1-01 (LJ1-01) satellite launched on June 2, 2018 provides a new option for nighttime light (NTL) application research. In this paper, four types of human settlements, such as cities, counties, towns and villages, are sampled to evaluate the potential of LJ1-01 to detect feeble NTL by comparing with the NTL images from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Satellite. First, the landscape indices and cutoff threshold method are applied to enhance signal-noise ratio (SNR). Then, the detection accuracy of samples is evaluated to determine the optimal cutoff threshold for each NTL data source. After that, the spatial correspondence of different NTL images and the area consistency between the samples and NTL footprints are compared. Finally, after the discussion of feeble NTL detection and the influence of clouds, moonlight and image composites, it can be concluded that LJ1-01 is more suitable for detection feeble NTL objects, while great importance should be attached to the measures to eliminate the noise in LJ1-01 image and make LJ1-01 more widely used: (1) In the study area, a suitable cutoff threshold of LJ1-01 image can be set to 0.1 nano-Wcm−2sr−1, which is lower than that of VIIRS image (0.3 nano-Wcm−2sr−1), and this enables LJ1-01 to reserve more information of NTL, especially the feeble NTL. Moreover, the minimum area that can be identified by NTL footprints from LJ1-01 is 0.02 km2, while that of VIIRS and DMSP are 0.3 km2 and 4.5 km2, respectively. (2) The cutoff threshold method can identify the range of NTL with more noise, but cannot eliminate the noise separately. The filtering method and the image composition method may play more important role in the applications of LJ1-01 data.

scholarly journals Small cities face greater impact from automation

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (139) ◽  
pp. 20170946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan R. Frank ◽  
Lijun Sun ◽  
Manuel Cebrian ◽  
Hyejin Youn ◽  
Iyad Rahwan
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Worker Displacement ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Job Content ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Technical Professions

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment.

Are large urban areas sustainability champions?: A Double Delinking Analysis of Environmental Performance of Global Cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-223
Author(s):  
SURENDRA SINGH
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
City Size ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Efficient Data ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between both city size and welfare or prosperity on the one hand, and environmental-climatological outcomes on the other hand. This will be done by examining this intriguing relationship for a sample of 40 large cities in our world (with different size categories and located in countries with different welfare levels). Based on detailed statistical data on a multiplicity of relevant characteristics of these cities (stemming from the GPCI metropolitan data base of the Mori Memorial Foundation (2016)), we have used a super-efficient Data Envelopment Analysis (SE- DEA) to analyse the relative economic-environmental efficiency outcomes of distinct classes of global cities, so as to test the above mentioned double proposition, coined here double delinking or the double Kuznets curve phenomenon.

scholarly journals Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4624
Author(s):  
Nils B. Weidmann ◽  
Gerlinde Theunissen
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Nighttime Lights ◽  
Political Perceptions ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
Data Collections ◽  
The Relationship

Economic inequality at the local level has been shown to be an important predictor of people’s political perceptions and preferences. However, research on these questions is hampered by the fact that local inequality is difficult to measure and systematic data collections are rare, in particular in countries of the Global South. We propose a new measure of local inequality derived from nighttime light (NTL) emissions data. Our measure corresponds to the local inequality in per capita nighttime light emissions, using VIIRS-derived nighttime light emissions data and spatial population data from WorldPop. We validate our estimates using local inequality estimates from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for a sample of African countries. Our results show that nightlight-based inequality estimates correspond well to those derived from survey data, and that the relationship is not due to structural factors such as differences between urban and rural regions. We also present predictive results, where we approximate the (survey-based) level of local inequality with our nighttime light indicator. This illustrates how our approach can be used for new cases where no other data are available.

scholarly journals Earth at Night: An Image of the Nighttime Earth Based on Cloud-Free Satellite Photographs

1991 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woodruff T. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Astronomical Observation ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Street Lighting ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program ◽  
First Time ◽  
Meteorological Satellite

ABSTRACTAn image of the entire earth at nighttime is assembled for the first time. It consists of a mosaic of photographs, all taken at local midnight in the 400-1100 nm band, made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program over the period 1974-84. Photographs were selected for freedom from clouds, lack of moonlight, high sensitivity, and suitability to illustrate various temporal phenomena. The image primarily reveals activities of humankind such as urban street lighting, rangeland burning, slash-and-burn agriculture, natural gas burnoffs in oilfields, and squidding. Although light pollution in urban areas creates a striking map, at the same time it devastates astronomical observation and removes much of humankind from any familiarity with the night sky.

scholarly journals Assessment of Sustainability Development in Urban Areas of Morocco

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Lahouari Bounoua ◽  
Najlaa Fathi ◽  
Meryem El Berkaoui ◽  
Laila El Ghazouani ◽  
Mohammed Messouli
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Earth Observations ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth ◽  
Systematic Pattern ◽  
Land Consumption

In Morocco, the last census counted 70% of houses in cities, with seven cities accounting for 25% of the total population and 41% of the urban population. This paper questioned the sustainability indicator in Moroccan cities using a novel methodology based on Earth observations and census data. We estimated the indicator for the 25 largest urban areas between 2003 and 2013. A stratification based on urbanization fractions allowed for the definition and comparison of hierarchically ordered zones consistent across urban areas and scales. We found no systematic pattern of growth between cities. However, three categories of development were identified: a group of large cities with an indicator less than unity and land consumption commensurate to population growth, a group of medium-sized cities trending moderately towards unsustainability with an indicator between one and two, and a group including small cities with significant departure from sustainability. The disparate sustainability levels between urban areas appear to be related to the rapid economic growth, typical of an emerging economy. Our results indicate a continuous population growth pushing outwards the perimeters of existing urban areas. Unless regulated, land consumption is increasing faster than the population in most parts of Morocco, in line with global trends.

scholarly journals Growth and Hierarchy of Cities in Algeria: Application of the Rank-Size Rule

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Bousmaha ◽  
Salah Zeraib ◽  
Nassira Benhassine ◽  
Yacine Kouba
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
National Level ◽  
Urban System ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Demographic Dynamics

The objectives of this paper are to analyze the urban growth and urbanization phenomenon in Algeria. Two processes that originated respectively by the expansion of existing urban areas and the process of urbanization that took place between 1954 and 2008, a period marked by significant economic, social and political changes in Algerian society. Our analysis was mainly based on the Algerian general census of population and habitat (2008) and on the application of rank-size distribution of cities according to Zipf’s rule. This study revealed that in Algeria, the urban system is particularly marked by the dramatic expansion of small cities. Indeed, the development of small towns, through the transition from rural to urban and the residential loosening of large cities have influenced the trend towards the balance of the urban system in Algeria. Results revealed also how the "primatial" city is undergoing profound economic and social changes at the national level. These changes are most often imposed from the top as part of land-use planning policy. This study provides some insights into the demographic dynamics of cities and the evolution of urban hierarchies in Algeria, through the comparison of the different rank-size distributions of Algerian cities in space and time. Our results suggest that land-use planning strategies are the only policies capable of influencing the future of the Algerian urban system.

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