Journal of Applied Sciences ›› 2017, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 647-657.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0255-8297.2017.05.010

• Signal and Information Processing • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Estimation of Provincial Economic Development Levels Based on DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images

MA Dan1, CHENG Hui2, MAO Yan-ling1, XING Shi-he1   

  1. 1. College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China;
    2. Tourism School, Shandong Women's University, Jinan 250300, China
  • Received:2016-10-10 Revised:2016-12-13 Online:2017-09-30 Published:2017-09-30

Abstract:

This paper produces nighttime light intensity maps across 31 provinces and municipalities in mainland China using the DMSP/OLS nighttime lights data in 2001, 2004 and 2007. Brightness ratio and area ratio are introduced to construct a nighttime light index and a statistics index with ratio analysis and principal component analysis. The indices in 2001 and 2004 are used as training samples and the ones in 2007 as test data to establish a linear regression model at the provincial level. The coefcient of determination is 0.872. Spatio-temporal distribution of provincial socioeconomic development levels in China is analyzed based on the nighttime light index. The results indicate that, by introducing brightness and area ratios, using nighttime light indices to estimate regional socioeconomic development levels is feasible and effective.

Key words: DMSP/OLS, nighttime light index, principal component analysis, gross domestic product (GDP), regression analysis

CLC Number: