Characterizing the Growth Patterns of 45 Major Metropolitans in Mainland China Using DMSP/OLS Data

Tao Jia,Kai Chen,Jiye Wang

doi:10.3390/rs9060571

Tao Jia, Kai Chen + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9060571

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Abstract

Understanding growth patterns at the metropolitan level is instructive for better planning and policy making on sustainable urban development. Using DMSP/OLS data from 1992 to 2013, this article aims to investigate growth patterns of major metropolitans in Mainland China from the aspects of intensification and expansion. We start by calibrating the DMSP/OLS data and selecting 45 major metropolitans. On intensification, results suggest that aggregately, metropolitans displayed cyclical pattern over time and large metropolitans tended to have higher levels of intensification than moderate or small ones. Individually, metropolitans with similar intensification over time could be clustered together using Dendrogram, and evolution pattern of the clusters exhibited similarity to the aggregated one. On expansion, results show that aggregately metropolitans displayed a decreasing trend over time, and moderate or small metropolitans tended to have higher levels of expansion than large ones. Particularly, moderate metropolitans were more likely to expand adjacently, and small ones were more likely to experience scatter or corridor expansion. Each metropolitan can be represented by a mixed expansion model over time, which might tell where and how much expansion occurred in the current year. Furthermore, intensification is highly correlated with expansion over time for small metropolitans, but they are poorly correlated for large or moderate ones. Lastly, the high correlation of intensification and expansion with the change of GDP in each year indicates the reliability of our work.

Highlights

According to the reports of the United Nations [1], it is reported that around 54% of the world population or 48% of the Asian population resided in cities in 2014 and it is expected that the percentage will continue to grow in the coming decades
Expansion patterns were examined at the of at the urban level [27,47]; (2) growth patterns were examined by employing all lit-pixels instead of the urban-pixels [4,32,38]; (3) growth
Our study borrows the idea from the evolution of networks [44,45], which regards growth in metropolitan as a gradual progress mixed with intensification and expansion in terms of digital number (DN) change

Summary

Introduction

According to the reports of the United Nations [1], it is reported that around 54% of the world population or 48% of the Asian population resided in cities in 2014 and it is expected that the percentage will continue to grow in the coming decades. The large-scale rural-urban demographic shift and the population growth in urban and suburban areas have converted a large amount of unexploited land (such as grassland, forest, et al.) into impervious surfaces through which water cannot penetrate, such as rooftops, roads, or other land used by mankind [3]. This process is mainly concentrated on developing countries [4]. They are known as metropolitans in the literature [7], which functions as a single unit by representing intensive interactions and mixtures in socioeconomic and demographic aspects [4]

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