The Study on Urbanization Process in China Based on DMSP/OLS Data: Development of a Light Index for Urbanization Level Estimation
基于DMSP/OLS数据的中国城市化过程研究——反映区域城市化水平的灯光指数的构建

Urbanization, stimulated by striking economic development, has been proceeded in China on a large scale and with striking rapidity in the past two decades. It is necessary to monitor and model urbanization process of China for its sustainable development. This paper presents a new light index for regional urbanization level estimation considering the light spatial distribution and intensity based on DMSP/OLS data, which was pre-processed by Japan National Institute of Environmental Studies. The correlation analysis between light index and composite urbanization index was carried out in province scale. The result shows that there is significant relationship between two indexes. The regression model for composite urbanization index estimation using light index was also developed with R 2 equal to 0.793. It suggests that light index is an effective and applicable index for regional urbanization analysis and monitoring. Through the analysis of light index change in China during 1992 to 1998, it is shown that the urbanization level in China is different from high level in East China to low level in West China, and urbanization level was improved largely during 1992 to 1998, especially in provinces of East China.