Abstract
As the capital of China, Beijing has experienced a continued and rapid urbanization process in the past few decades. One of the key environmental impacts of rapid urbanization is the effect of urban heat island (UHI). The objective of this study was to estimate the urbanization indexes of Beijing from 1992 to 2013 based on the stable nighttime light (NTL) data derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Line Scanner System (DMSP/OLS), which has became a widely used remote sensing database after decades of development. The annual average value nighttime light Digital Number (NTL-DN), and the total lit number and urban area proportion within Beijing’s boundary were calculated and compared with social-economic statistics parameters to estimate the correlation between them. Four Landsat thematic mapper (TM) images acquired in 1995 and 2009 were applied to estimate the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized land surface temperature (LSTnor), and spatial correlation analysis was then carried out to investigate the relationship between the urbanization level and NDVI and LSTnor. Our results showed a strong negative linear relationship between the NTL-DN value and NDVI; however, in contrast, a strong positive linear relationship between existed between the NTL-DN value and LSTnor. By conducting a spatial comparison analysis of 1995 and 2009, the vegetation coverage change and surface temperature difference were calculated and compared with the NTL-DN difference. Our result revealed that the regions of fast urbanization resulted in a decrease of NDVI and increase of LSTnor. In addition, choropleth maps showing the spatial pattern of urban heat island zones were produced based on different temperatures, and the analysis result indicated that the spatial distribution of surface temperature was closely related with the NTL-DN and NDVI. These findings are helpful for understanding the urbanization process as well as urban ecology, which both have significant implications for urban planning and minimize the potential environmental impacts of urbanization in Beijing.
Highlights
More than 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with this proportion likely to keep increasing in developing countries
This study developed the annual average nighttime light (NTL)-digital number (DN) value, total lit number and urban area proportion to investigate the spatial-temporal urbanization progress in Beijing from 1992–2013
From both the DMSP/OLS NTL indicators and the social-economic statistics data, the results showed that Beijing experienced continued and rapid urbanization during the study period
Summary
More than 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with this proportion likely to keep increasing in developing countries. Urbanization is taking place at a spectacular rate worldwide, in China during the past few decades. Along with rapid urbanization and modernization, some environmental issues, such as water pollution [3], air pollution [4], greenhouse gas emissions [5], and enhanced urban heat islands [6], are arising in Remote Sens. To have a comprehensive understanding of the process of urbanization and to evaluate its environmental influence, it is necessary and indispensable to monitor and analyze the dynamics of urbanization in China [7]. As the capital city of China, Beijing has experienced rapid urbanization, industrialization and modernization, analyzing the urbanization process of Beijing has significant meaning, which would be conductive to studies of other cities of China
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