Abstract
With rapid urbanization and economic development, artificial lighting at night brings convenience to human life but also causes a considerable urban environmental pollution issue. This study employed the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test, nighttime light indices, and the standard deviation method to investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of artificial lighting in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Moreover, nighttime light imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System, socioeconomic data, and high-resolution satellite images were combined to comprehensively explore the driving factors of urban artificial lighting change. The results showed the following: (1) Overall, there was an increasing trend in artificial lighting in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which accounted for approximately 56.87% of the total study area. (2) The change in artificial lighting in the entire area was relatively stable. The artificial lighting in the northwest area changed faster than that in the southeast area, and the areas where artificial lighting changed the most were Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan. (3) The fastest growth of artificial lighting was in Chengde and Zhangjiakou, where the rates of increase were 334% and 251%, respectively. The spatial heterogeneity of artificial lighting in economically developed cities was higher than that in economically underdeveloped cities such as Chengde and Zhangjiakou. (4) Multi-source data were combined to analyse the driving factors of urban artificial lighting in the entire area. The Average Population of Districts under City (R2 = 0.77) had the strongest effect on artificial lighting. Total Passenger Traffic (R2 = 0.54) had the most non-obvious effect. At different city levels, driving factors varied with differences of economy, geographical location, and the industrial structures of cities. Urban expansion, transportation hubs, and industries were the major reasons for the significant change in nighttime light. Urban artificial lighting represents a trend of overuse closely related to nighttime light pollution. This study of artificial lighting contributes to the rational planning of urban lighting systems, the prevention and control of nighttime light pollution, and the creation of liveable and ecologically green cities.
Highlights
With the rapid development of urbanization and economies, urban artificial lighting has greatly developed [1]
This study constructs three kinds of nighttime light indices (total night light (TNL), mean night light (MNL), and standard deviation of night light (SDNL) [18]) to analyse the spatio-temporal characteristics of artificial lighting changes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: (1) TNL refers to the total amount level of artificial lighting in the study area
Research on artificial lighting is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of light pollution issues
Summary
With the rapid development of urbanization and economies, urban artificial lighting has greatly developed [1]. Han et al found that the growth areas of China’s artificial lighting were mainly located in large coastal cities in the east [20] These studies have focused on the analysis of nighttime light changes using different time-series of imagery, and there remains a lack of integration of the changing trends and fluctuation characteristics of urban nighttime lights to analyse spatiotemporal variability. Socioeconomic data and high-resolution satellite imagery are coupled to explore the driving factors from the perspective of socioeconomic indices and city levels. These findings are of great significance for the rational use of artificial lighting and the control of nighttime light pollution. This study can be used for nighttime lights research and light pollution prevention and control in other regions of the world
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