A new approach to the application of DMSP/OLS nighttime light data to urbanization assessment

In this study, we proposed a new method for extracting urban built-up area from satellite-based nighttime light data. Our methods are based on locally thresholding correction of nighttime lights in association with economic statistical data (termed TC-ESD). We grouped China´s cities into a series of categories according to gross domestic product and geographical regions. Category-based thresholds of night light brightness used in extracting urban extent were obtained for different categories of cities from a comprehensive consideration of nighttime lights and economic activities. In comparison with uniform empirical thresholding method, our results show that TC-ESD method could markedly improve the recognition accuracy of urban built-up area from nightlight data for individual cities.