Analysis of territorial development intensity in China using DMSP/OLS data

Statistical analysis of territorial development intensity (TDI) from macroscopic angle has become even more important and urgent. Comparing with any other available satellite data source, the nighttime lights collected by DMSP/OLS have a number of favorable characteristics for depicting the spatial patterns of Constructed surfaces on large scale. The nighttime lightsimagery was projected to two-kilometer equal area grid in an Albers conical equal area projection. Linear regression defined a formula for estimating the TDI base on the brightness of nighttime lights. The method was used to estimate the TDI at provincial scale. The estimation results show that: It is feasible to carry out the large-scale TDI calculation with DMSP/OLS nighttime lights data. This method has the promotion demonstration value for other similar research.