Calculation methods of territorial development intensity using DMSP/OLS data

The nighttime lights collected by the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) have a number of favorable characteristics for depicting the spatial patterns of Constructed surfaces on large scale. This paper presents a quantitative analysis on the brightness of nighttime lights and territorial development intensity (TDI) from pixel-scale using the land use data of Shuozhou City as the reference data source. The nighttime lights were reprojected to 2-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. Furthermore, results also confirm that different types of construction land make different contribution to the brightness. This method is effective and convenient for constructed area analysis and monitoring.