Since current administrative unit-based urban land area statistical data in China lack enough spatial information, the urbanization process research at large scale cannot be effectively supported. Based on the current administrative unit-based urban land area statistical data in China, a new approach to quickly and cheaply derive urban land information from the non-radiance-calibrated Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/ Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime light imagery is presented in this paper. With the new approach, the urban pattern information in China in 1992, 1996 and 1998 was derived with the urbanization processes in China in the 1990s restored by using the non-radiance-calibrated DMSP/OLS nighttime imagery. The accuracy assessment based on the statistical data showed that the relative error between the derived total urban land area and the statistical data at national scale was less than 2% in 1992, and less than 1% in 1996 and 1998, and the maximum relative error at province scale do not exceed 10% with most of the provinces less than 3%. In addition, the urban patterns derived from the high-resolution Landsat TM imagery were compared with those from the DMSP/ OLS data. The results showed that the urban pattern characteristics derived from DMSP/OLS were basically coincident with those from TM imagery with the total accuracy of about 80%. Thus it can be seen that our restored urbanization process in China in the 1990s by using the non-radiance DMSP/OLS nighttime imagery can be accepted and can represent the actual urban development in China at that time on the whole.

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Poyang and Dongting Lakes, major water resources and key elements for natural flood control and reduction within the Yangtze River middle basin, were monitored from 2000 to 2008, with a re-visiting period of 10 days, using ENVISAT ASAR, and completed by MODIS data, validated by Beijing 1 time series. GPCP and TRMM time series were utilized to derive regional meteorological indicators. At the lake scale as well as their subdivisions ones, results allowed the characterization of lake behaviors. Even if the Dongting and Poyang lakes mechanisms are substantially different, their water surface areas and water level variations exhibit a good similarity, including the same year of major flooding (2002) and the same year of lowest extent of inundation (2001). Both lakes present astonishingly low water levels and low surface areas in summer of 2006, being associated with a very early draw-off. Few reasons could explained it: (i) a rainfall deficit at the sub-watershed level; (ii) a hydrological event in the upper stream part, namely a possible closure of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) gates; or (iii) a global climate change effect at the regional scale. The reasons for the dramatic water dropdown are neither a local rain deficit nor a change in the TGD management. The smallest water extent for wet season observed in 2006, appeared to be linked with a severe drought within the upper stream part of the Yangtze River basin. In addition, an impressive decreasing tendency of water surface and level is observed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, linked with relatively constant decreasing precipitations over the last decade. This synergistic utilization of data from earth observation systems and in situ data provide valuable information on water resource management at the scale of the middle Yangtze River watershed.

This paper firstly derived urban information from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) data in 1992, 1996 and 1998 with the support of statistical data, and then developed three basic urban models of polygon-urbanization, line-urbanization and point-urbanization in urban agglomerations from viewpoint of spatial analysis. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Urban patch numbers in the Bohai Rim increased from 1659 to 2053 with an annual average increase number of about 66. Meanwhile, the small urban patches accounted for a larger proportion in the region and the patch density increased fast. In addition, the urban barycenter of the region showed a moving trend toward northwest from 1992 to 1998. Urbanization in the Bohai Rim in the 1990s is fast and obvious.(2) Urbanization in the Bohai Rim can be reflected by three basic processes, i.e., the polygon-urbanization around the big cities, the line-urbanization around the transportation lines and the point-urbanization emerging in large areas. Of them, the polygon-urbanization has been in dominance. It is obviously within an effective range of 3-4 km surrounding the urban patches. The line-urbanization and point-urbanization in the region was relatively small, both of which showed an obvious increasing trend.

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