Evaluation of regional urbanization level from remote sensing data

A new urbanization evaluating method using on remote sensing data was introduced, with the combination of remote measurements (e.g., ALOS and ASTER) and statistic data, and the Middle cities in Liaoning province of Northeast China was taken as a case study, which is the largest economic nuclear area and with the highest urbanization development rate in northeast China. The evaluation index system was built, and specific indices were extracted with remote sensing method directly or indirectly. The index system basing on statistic data for urbanization evaluation was built, Index weight was determined with Analytical Hierarchy Process method, Information entropy and Mean square deviation analysis, and the urbanization level was evaluated with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The correlation between spatial monitoring indices derived with remote sensing and the urbanization level evaluated basing on statistic data (BSDUL) was analyzed, and the spatial indices highly correlating with BSDUL were used to evaluate regional urbanization with hierarchical fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. And the evaluation results were discussed with the results of BSDUL to analyze the reasonability of evaluation results and index system. A more effective evaluation method for regional level of urbanization was introduced, which provided timely scientific basis for urban and rural planning, and sustainable development of regional economy.