Night-time lights are more strongly related to urban building volume than to urban area

Shi, Lingfei; Foody, Giles M.; Boyd, Doreen S.; Girindran, Renoy; Wang, Lihui; Du, Yun; Ling, Feng

Abstract

A strong relationship between night-time light (NTL) data and the areal extent of urbanized regions has been observed frequently. As urban regions have an important vertical dimension, it is hypothesized that the strength of the relationship with NTL can be increased by consideration of the volume rather than simply the area of urbanized land. Relationships between NTL and the area and volume of urbanized land were determined for a set of towns and cities in the UK, the conterminous states of the USA and countries of the European Union. Strong relationships between NTL and the area urbanized were observed, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9282 to 0.9446. Higher correlation coefficients were observed for the relationship between NTL and urban building volume, ranging from 0.9548 to 0.9604; The difference in the correlations obtained with volume and with area was statistically significant at the 95% level of confidence. Studies using NTL data may be strengthened by consideration of the volume rather than just area of urbanized land.

Citation

Shi, L., Foody, G. M., Boyd, D. S., Girindran, R., Wang, L., Du, Y., & Ling, F. (2020). Night-time lights are more strongly related to urban building volume than to urban area. Remote Sensing Letters, 11(1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2019.1682709

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 22, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 28, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 2, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 29, 2020
• Journal: Remote Sensing Letters
• Print ISSN: 2150-704X
• Electronic ISSN: 2150-7058
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 29-36
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2019.1682709
• Keywords: Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous); Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3122847
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2150704X.2019.1682709
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=trsl20; Received: 2019-07-25; Accepted: 2019-09-22; Published: 2019-10-28
• Contract Date: Nov 12, 2019