Estimating the relationship between touristic activities and night light emissions

ABSTRACT The spatio-temporal dynamics of urban development can effectively be considered as a stepping stone for urban planning, decision-making and resource use and conservation. Consecutive satellite observations of night anthropogenic lighting and their profound study have provided beneficial estimators of both demographic and socio-economic dynamics. In the light of the above, the main aim of this paper is to examine the seasonal changes in night-time satellite images, and their correlation with the touristic activity in European Union (EU) countries. This study is conducted using 2012 and 2013 earth observation (night light imaginary from Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP; yearly basis) and visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS; seasonal basis) satellite programmes) and statistical data associated with the touristic activity (total nights spent) on a country level (NUTS 0). These data were processed using both remote sensing techniques, geographic information system (GIS) and statistical analyses (linear regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR)). The research results show that the night-time light emissions are highly correlated with the touristic activity and that the GWR proved to be an effective tool for the investigation of this relationship. However, a number of additional parameters should be further considered before determining the ability and the accuracy of the nightlight imaginary in the assessment of the touristic activity