Dynamics of Urban Density in China: Estimations Based on DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

Abstract

In China, rapid urbanization has increased the demand for urban land and intensified the conflict between limited land resources and urban development. In response, high urban density has been proposed to realize sustainable urban development. Achieving this goal requires an examination of the dynamics of urban density in China. Nighttime light (NTL) data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) are a good indicator of human activity. We applied NTL data to measure urban density in 70 major cities in China during 1992-2010. Based on temporal changes in NTL, we identified seven classes of urban density and clustered the distributions of urban density in 70 cities into six types. The dynamics of urban density were then obtained from the GDP density as an index of city development. The curves of urban density distribution gradually changed from a concave increase to W-shaped and S-shaped to a concave decrease, indicating that the current urban land use in China is unsustainable and that the shortage of land resources must be addressed. An examination of the distribution of urban density in Hong Kong revealed a different pattern and a potential solution for cities in mainland China. Index Terms-China, Defense Meteorological SatelliteProgram/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS), night light, urban density, urbanization.

Similarities and differences of city-size distributions in three main urban agglomerations of China from 1992 to 2015: A comparative study based on nighttime light data

“…According to previous studies, the size of cities in an urban system tends to follow a Pareto distribution (Batty, 2006;Gabaix et al, 2004;Soo, 2014;Xu and Zhu, 2009; These data provide an alternative data source to non-agricultural population data to measure city size consistently and objectively (Elvidge et al, 2009;Huang et al, 2014). Several studies have adopted city size measured by nighttime stable light (NSL) data successfully to evaluate city-size evolution in China (Huang et al, 2015;Small et al, 2011;Small and Elvidge, 2013;Wu et al, 2014). In addition, the rank clock method can explore the city-size distribution of a UA from the perspective of an individual city's rank changes (Batty, 2006).…”

Assessing the Impact of Nightlight Gradients on Street Robbery and Burglary in Cincinnati of Ohio State, USA

“…Second, nightlight satellite data can measure urban areas in cities. For instance, nightlight satellite data can be applied to investigate urban densities, urban land use, urban expansions, urban spatial clusters, and urban boundaries [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. Additionally, nightlight satellite data can measure urban areas inside the city.…”

“…Relationship between areas with composite edges, representing a combined set of all edges related to social and physical features, and crime remains untouched in the literature. Nightlight satellite data, reflection of combined effect of socioeconomic developments [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] and urban constructions [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51], could be a suitable source to measure such composite edges. This study aims to explore the possible impact of composite edges measured by nightlight gradients on street robbery and burglary.…”

Urban Form, Growth, and Accessibility in Space and Time: Anatomy of Land Use at the Parcel-Level in a Small to Medium-Sized American City

“…Based on the concept and measurement of urban form [22][23][24][25]36], the urbanized area or size, population density, urban density, and the land-use mix are calculated in Equations (1)-(5) respectively.…”