Settlement Dynamics Research Articles

Lithic refitting and the analysis of Middle Palaeolithic settlement dynamics: a high-temporal resolution example from El Pastor rock shelter (Eastern Iberia)

Archaeostratigraphic study of the Stratigraphic Unit IV from the Middle Palaeolithic site of El Pastor (Eastern Iberia) has resulted on the definition of high-resolution analytical units mostly corresponding to “micro-palimpsests” formed during more than a single human occupation. Analysis of these anthropogenic assemblages has suggested their interpretation as remains from several short-term occupations performed by MIS 3-4 Neanderthals. In this paper, we present an evaluation of this interpretative proposal, focusing on the technical and spatial study of lithic refits. Our aim is to present an empirical work that also contributes to the methodological discussion about refitting studies and behavioural interpretation related to Palaeolithic settlement dynamics.

Geostatistical analysis of historical contingency and land use footprints in the prehistoric settlement dynamics of the South Carolina Piedmont, North America

We present a high-resolution geostatistical analysis of prehistoric archaeological site locations and land use footprints for the South Carolina Piedmont of North America using archaeological survey data, multivariate logistic regression techniques, and fuzzy set theory. Our analysis uses archaeological site locations and generalizations about prehistoric economic systems to quantitatively model land use footprints and to test hypotheses derived from the archaeology of human-environment interactions. Specifically, we test the differential influence of landscape suitability and historical contingency as factors differentially influencing site location in immediate and delayed return economies. Our results highlight temporal variability in the influence of material factors (landforms and the residuum of previous occupations) on the selection of settlement and land use locations over the long term. We argue that our results indicate high potential for land use legacies beginning with the introduction of ceramic technologies. These landscape legacies were likely positive for human populations in that they improved the quality of ecosystems services and the reliability of provisioning.

Did climate determine Late Pleistocene settlement dynamics in the Ach Valley, SW Germany?

The loss of Neanderthal groups across Western and Central Europe during Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 3 has held the attention of archaeologists for decades. The role that climatic change, genetic interbreeding, and interspecies competition played in the extinction of Neanderthal groups is still debated. Hohle Fels is one of several important Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites from the Ach Valley in southwestern Germany which documents the presence of Neanderthals and modern humans in the region. Chronological and stratigraphic records indicate that these two groups occupied the site with little to no overlap or interaction. This provides the opportunity to examine the behavioural variability of Swabian Neanderthal populations without the complication of cross-cultural influence. In this study we contribute a terrestrial paleoenvironmental record derived from the small mammal material from Hohle Fels Cave to the ever-growing archaeological record of this period. By reconstructing the climate and landscape of the Ach Valley during this time we can identify the effect that the OIS 3 environment had on the presence of Neanderthals in the region. Based on indicator taxa and the habitat weighing method, the small mammal record, which includes rodents, insectivores, and bats, from Hohle Fels shows that the earliest Neanderthal occupation took place on a landscape characterized by substantial woodland and forest, rivers and ponds, as well as moist meadows and grasslands. A gradual increase in cold tundra and arctic environments is clear towards the end of the Middle Paleolithic, extending to the end of the early Aurignacian which may correlate with the onset of the Heinrich 4 event (~42,000 kya). Our taphonomic analysis indicates the material was accumulated primarily by opportunistic predators such as the great grey owl, snowy owl, and European eagle owl, and therefore reflects the diversity of landscapes present around the site in the past. Importantly, at the time Neanderthals abandoned the Ach Valley we find no indication for dramatic climatic deterioration. Rather, we find evidence of a gradual cooling of the Swabian landscape which may have pushed Neanderthal groups out of the Ach Valley prior to the arrival of modern human Aurignacian groups.

A Levalloisian jasper cache from the Arts Bogdyn Nuruu massif in the Gobi Altai Mountains, southern Mongolia

A Pleistocene deposit of jasper cores was discovered in the Gobi Altai Mountains, within the Arts Bogdyn Nuruu massif in southern Mongolia. It was situated on a mountain ridge above the Khutul Usny valley at a height of ca. 1500m a.s.l., away from human settlement (N44°16′09.3″, E102°53′41.5″). Examination of traces of the artefacts’ use proved that at least some of them display evidence of working. Technological analysis of the artefacts revealed that the find should be related to the Levallois-Mousterian population of the central Asian Middle Palaeolithic. The cache from Arts Bogdyn Nuruu is the first discovery of this type recorded within the Gobi Desert. It is a potential source of information contributing to the discussion of the specific nature of raw material exploitation, the dynamics of settlement and hunting strategies in the Altai region.

Pretrial negotiations under optimism

AbstractWe develop a tractable and versatile model of pretrial negotiation in which the negotiating parties are optimistic about the judge's decision and anticipate the possible arrival of public information about the case prior to the trial date. The parties will settle immediately upon the arrival of information. However, they may also agree to settle prior to an arrival. We derive the settlement dynamics prior to an arrival: negotiations result in either immediate agreement, a weak deadline effect—settling at a particular date before the deadline, a strong deadline effect—settling at the deadline, or impasse, depending on the level of optimism. Our findings match stylized facts.

Rural Settlement Expansion and its Effect on Food Security in Salanpur, West Bengal, India

The settlement may be viewed as the manifestation of delicate human-nature interaction and cultural impression of humanity in the landscape system. With the progress of civilisation, the perception of use of natural resources and cultural development become ever-changing phenomena that causes the changes in the rural settlement all over the world. Salanpur C.D. Block of Paschim Bardhhaman district has registered an unusual settlement arrangement and spatio-temporal changes. Using satellite imageries and competent GIS technologies it is observed that an unplanned growth of rural settlement has developed in this part of West Bengal. This paper examines the spatio-temporal dynamics of the rural settlement over ten years (2008-2018), employing PR index, and SI index. In doing so, it, analyses the dynamic change of rural settlement at Gram Panchayat Level and its relation with overall land-use in the study area. This paper also envisages how the rural settlement expansion affects the various dimension of food security in Salanpur C. D. Block. Along with this, the Spearman Rank-order Correlation Coefficient (rho=p) is also applied to comprehend the effect of the rural settlement expansion on regional food security. Growth of rural settlement towards productive agricultural land, unequal access to food, insufficiency in clean water, sanitation, and health care facility are also indicators of increasing threat to the long run food security of the people in the study area. The result shows a positive correlation between the rural settlement expansion index (SI) and food insecurity Index (FISI), it indicating that if the rural settlements expand, it would enhance the risk of food insecurity of the area. Development and growth are the buzz of the modern era, but the dark side of it is that destruction of agricultural lands would be ultimately responsible for food insecurity and uneven economic growth. The findings suggest that lopsided and unplanned growth of settlements is pose threats on food security of the study area. Therefore, sound planning is required to come out of these potential threats for the sake of the inhabitants.

Основные тенденции эволюции сельского расселения России в ХХ – начале ХХI вв.

<p class="_1Vvodka">Рассмотрена динамика сельского расселения СССР и России с 1926 по 2010 гг. Определены факторы его эволюции в советский период: урбанизация и политика советской власти (коллективизация, укрупнение колхозов и др.). В постсоветский период главные факторы<span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span>–<span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span>де-аграризация, снижение роли производственных и рост доли «чисто селитебных» функций населенных пунктов, старение населения, рост рекреационных функций. Вопреки устоявшемуся мнению, политика «сселения неперспективных деревень» не оказала существенного влияния на темпы сокращения числа поселений и на рост оттока жителей из села.</p><p class="_1Vvodka">Традиционная («советская») типология сельских населенных пунктов была основана на их месте в системе колхозного производства. Но сейчас система расселения и территориальная организация хозяйства, которые раньше почти совпадали, рассогласованы. Поэтому для типологии требуются совсем другие индикаторы: наличие или отсутствие постоянного населения, его соотношение с временным населением, наличие трудоспособного населения и рабочих мест.</p>

Oceanographic moorings as year-round laboratories for investigating growth performance and settlement dynamics in the Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki (E. A. Smith, 1902).

BackgroundOceanographic moorings (OMs) are standard marine platforms composed of wires, buoys, weights and instruments, and are used as in situ observatories to record water column properties. However, OMs are also comprised of hard substrates on which a variety of invertebrates can settle when they encounter these structures along their dispersal routes. In this contribution, we studied the fouling communities found on two OMs deployed in the Ross Sea (Antarctica). Furthermore, a cage containing the Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki (E. A. Smith, 1902) was incorporated in the OM. The growth of the caged A. colbecki were evaluated after 1 year and their shells used as biological proxy for seawater temperature and salinity.MethodsA variety of settlers were collected from two different OMs deployed in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and species identified using a combination of morphological and genetic (mainly through DNA barcoding) characteristics. Caged scallops were individually marked with permanent tags and their growth studied in terms of size-increment data (SID). Cages were specifically designed to prevent damage to individuals due to water drag during OM deployment and retrieval. Growth parameters from the caged individuals were applied to the A. colbecki juveniles that had settled on the mooring, to trace the likely settlement period.ResultsThe growth performance of caged A. colbecki was similar to that from previous growth studies of this species. The remarkable survival rate of caged specimens (96.6%) supports the feasibility of caging experiments, even for a species with a fragile shell such as the Antarctic scallop. Some of the new recruits found on the mooring were A. colbecki, the same species we put into special cages fixed to it. The settlement of the A. colbecki juveniles started during the Austral spring with a peak in summer months and, remarkably, coincided with seasonal changes in water temperature and flow direction, which were recorded by the mooring’s instruments. Genetic data from other settlers provided new information about their larval ecology and connectivity.DiscussionOceanographic moorings are expensive and complex experimental platforms that, at present, are strictly used for the acquisition of physical and biogeochemical data. Their use for in situ ecological experiments on model organisms suitable for caging and to study fouling species has yet to be fully explored. We present the outcomes of a study, which represents a baseline for the characterization of Antarctic fouling biodiversity. We hope that in the near future an internationally coordinated systematic study of settlers could be initiated around the Antarctic continent. This could utilize “new generation OMs” equipped with standardized settlement structures and agreed sampling protocols for the study of fouling communities.

The Spatial Database Development for Research on Settlements and Afforestation in Nowy Tomyśl Plain in Early Modern Times

In the article, a process of elaboration of a database on afforestation reconstruction in Nowy Tomyśl Plain in the modern era was presented. The aim of the publication was to share the materials acquired from old and current maps and written sources, which are used in the reconstruction of the acreage, borders, and type of the forest in the area under scrutiny. It can be treated as a collection of metadata, in which the methodology of each thematic layer acquisition and elaboration is described. The elements in the database can be divided into four main thematic groups: Basemaps, Settlements and Administrative Divisions, Natural Landscape, and Forest Reconstruction Data. The basemaps comprise the Prussian georeferenced old maps: Gilly-Crons’ map (1:50,000, the end of the 18th century) and maps in scale 1:25,000: Urmesstischblatter (first half the 19th century) and Messtischblatter (second half of the 19th century). In order to graphically connect the historical to the current data, the topographical map and a Digital Elevation Model acquired from Geoportal were used. The application also includes the settlements, administrative divisions: form the 16th century (on the basis of the last HAP volume) and the 18th century (reconstructed for the purpose of this project on the basis of the old maps and written sources). In the Natural Landscape thematic group, there is data on hydrography and afforestation dating back to the end of the 18th century (Gilly- -Cron’s map) and the first half of the 19th century ( Urmesstischblatter ). The crucial objects from the perspective of the conducted analysis are those on afforestation. Their choice was based on the potential to reconstruct the extent, borders, and types of forests in the said area in the 16th century. Thus, worth mentioning are: data on Dutch settlement dynamics in the 18th century, potential forest area per a village, results of Archaeological Survey of Poland, onomastic information, or even the information on the vegetation type acquired from the written sources, and old and current maps. All the above can be analysed in the application, though they can also be downloaded if the need arises in the form of a geodatabase (*.mdb) and analysed further by the more advanced users.

Is the French diagonal emptying? An exploratory spatial analysis of demographic decrease in France for the past 50 years

This article’s purpose is to draw attention to the results of the latest censuses in France, and to the dichotomy that remains between space and population in terms of settlement dynamics. A detailed examination on different levels – from counties (“départements”) to villages/towns (“communes”)- shows territories where the demographic dynamics are opposed. These dynamics don’t fit with commonplace conceptions, even in the scientific world. Beyond a mark that’s still visible and quantifiable, the “diagonal of emptiness” (a line drawn between the Pyrenees and the Ardennes) has actually not totally emptied. However, its geography is varied and can only be evaluated with thorough consideration removed from preconceptions. This is the point of our article, based on sharp cartography and measurements of spatial patterns. These indicate that some spaces in France seem to be literally abandoned by human beings.population geography, demographic change, spatial autocorrelation

Settlement, space organization and land-use of a small Middle Bronze Age community of central Italy. The case study of Gorgo del Ciliegio (Arezzo-Tuscany)

The Middle Bronze Age site of Gorgo del Ciliegio is located in the Afra valley (Upper Tiber basin) in the proximity of strategic trans-Apennine passes connecting the Tyrrhenian regions of Central Italy to the Po plain and the Umbrian-Marches territories. At Gorgo del Ciliegio a Middle Bronze Age small settlement composed of a single house and various kinds of ancillary features was discovered. Through a multi-disciplinary approach it was possible to gather a large amount of information about settlement dynamics implemented by people living at Gorgo del Ciliegio and about the ways in which this community interacted with and took advantage of the surrounding environment/landscape, while adapting the site's economy to natural features.This paper focuses on the evidence provided by material culture, environment and landscape considered as interrelating indicators of social identity and economic strategies. In order to contextualize these issues, broad space was given to the spatial organization and the architectural features as key factors of socio-economic complexity. The authors conclude that Gorgo del Ciliegio was a farm settlement being probably part of a more extensive settlement system, composed of several farms dispersed along the Afra valley. This specific context proved to be particularly suitable for interweaving relations and exchanges with the Adriatic regions, and thus promoting (and being promoted by) the development of an economy mainly based on mobile pastoralism.

Tree rings as a proxy for seasonal precipitation variability and Early Neolithic settlement dynamics in Bavaria, Germany.

Studying the dynamic of Neolithic settlement on a local scale and its connection to climate variability is often difficult due to missing on-site climate reconstructions from natural archives. Here we bring together archaeological settlement data and a regional climate reconstruction from precipitation-sensitive trees. Both archives hold information about regional settlement dynamics and hydroclimate variability spanning the time of the first farming communities, the so called Linearbandkeramik (LBK) in Bavaria, Germany. Precipitation-sensitive tree-ring series from subfossil oak are used to develop a spring-summer precipitation reconstruction (5700–4800 B.C.E.) representative for southern Germany. Early Neolithic settlement data from Bavaria, mainly for the duration of the LBK settlement activities, are critically evaluated and compared to this unique regional hydroclimate reconstruction as well as to reconstructions of Greenland temperature, summer sea surface temperature, delta 18O and global solar irradiance to investigate the potential impact of climate on Neolithic settlers and their settlement dynamic during the LBK. Our hydroclimate reconstruction demonstrates an extraordinarily high frequency of severe dry and wet spring-summer seasons during the entire LBK, with particularly high year-to-year variability from 5400 to 5101 B.C.E. and with lower fluctuations until 4801 B.C.E. A significant influence of regional climate on the dynamic of the LBK is possible (e.g. around 4960 B.C.E.), but should be interpreted very carefully due to asynchronous trends in settlement dynamics. Thus, we conclude that even when a climate proxy such as tree rings that has excellent spatio-temporal resolution is available, it remains difficult to establish potential connections between the settlement dynamic of the LBK and climate variability.

Les puits de l’âge du Bronze du Parc d’Activités du Pays d’Erstein (Bas-Rhin, Alsace) : des analyses dendroarchéologiques à l’ étude de l’occupation du sol

Les puits de l’âge du Bronze du Parc d’Activités du Pays d’Erstein (Bas-Rhin, Alsace) : des analyses dendroarchéologiques à l’ étude de l’occupation du sol

A Pattern Language of Self Construction

Labor in favelas was not acknowledged by architects and planners because of the interpretation of the definition of the informal settlement and the slum. Also, by architectural practice and parochial theories, which affect the production of planners and architects. The definition of slums as spaces lacking sanitation and infrastructural components is deeply rooted in both theoretical and institutional definitions of the informal settlement. Nevertheless, the spaces of slums and informal settlements are much more complex and include social-economic aspects of everyday life of its inhabitants. Interpretative tools and intellectual frames are needed to open new perspectives and epistemologies in the field of architecture that are capable to address the needs of únderpriviledged people. This is the ethos of the methodology designed to study informal settlements in the present study. The finding that work is a fundamental element shaping space dynamics of informal settlement is based on an ethnographic research. To investigate how the social actions of the inhabitants shape them, methodological tools of anthropology (such as ethnography, interviews, oral history) rooted in De Certeau (and participatory research) were combined to the methodology of the Pattern Language (and with methodological tools of architecture such as drawing) to highlight the importance of social practices as shapers of space in in contexts in which the socio-spatial dynamics are not familiar to architects and planners, such as informal settlements. This methodology is underpinned by architectural imagination and intellectual reflection. It is the architectural imagination that allow architects and planners to create instruments to understand and represent space and new interpretative frames to study space. As for example, the perspective, which was invented when architects such as Bruneleschi experimented to draw over a mirror in a Plaza, in order to represent proportion, focal points and drain lines in the Renaissance Period.

Rethinking Elite Commitment to Social Protection in Ghana: Insights from an Adapted Political Settlements Approach

This paper explores the political economy drivers of Ghana’s flagship cash transfer programme, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP). In contrast to existing accounts of the LEAP as a domestically driven cash transfer scheme, the evidence here shows that donor pressures, leveraged through financing, played a more prominent role than the paradigmatic ideas of domestic political elites in shaping the adoption of the LEAP. Despite the recent discovery of oil and the country’s subsequent ascension to middle-income status, donors remain important players in the Ghanaian political economy, given their dominance in the investment component of government’s budget and the resultant inability of political elites to generate the rents that are so badly needed for meeting various redistributive demands without donor financing. However, once the LEAP was adopted, domestic political calculations and the incentives generated by Ghana’s political settlement dynamics took centre stage in shaping the actual implementation of the programme, especially around questions of targeting and geographical coverage, and the prioritisation of reforms with more visible impact that could be leveraged upon to win competitive elections. These findings suggest that an adapted political settlements framework that goes beyond domestic political calculus, and which explicitly incorporates the influence of ideational and transnational factors, can greatly improve our understanding of the political economy drivers of social protection in Africa.

Gefäßkeramik als Mittel zur Datierung und zur Bestimmung der Nutzungsdauer eines Siedlungsbefundes am Beispiel des frühmittelalterlichen Burgwalls von Lubin

Vessel pottery discovered in the course of research in the early medieval stronghold in Lubin in Wolin Island (Western Pomerania) is remarkable for a strong fragmentation and deformation. However, various methods which were applied to discuss it, including a size classification of vessel shards and a qualitative-quantitative analysis, allowed to properly assess these shards. On the one hand, these criteria allowed to establish the chronology of the vessel assemblage and thus to identify the settlement dynamics of this feature. On the other hand, it became possible to explain reasons behind this considerable fragmentation of the shards. It seems that it resulted from the intensity of development of the stronghold.

Book Review of The Potenza Valley Survey (Marche, Italy): Settlement Dynamics and Changing Material Culture in an Adriatic Valley Between Iron Age and Late Antiquity, edited by Frank Vermeulen, Dimitri Van Limbergen, Patrick Monsieur, and Devi Taelman

Book Review of The Potenza Valley Survey (Marche, Italy): Settlement Dynamics and Changing Material Culture in an Adriatic Valley Between Iron Age and Late Antiquity, edited by Frank Vermeulen, Dimitri Van Limbergen, Patrick Monsieur, and Devi Taelman

Chemical and mineralogical characterization and 14C dating of white and red pigments in the rock paintings from Nyero (Uganda)

Petro-mineralogical, micro-chemical and isotopic (δ34S-CaSO4 and 14C dating) analyses were carried out in selected samples from the rock paintings of Nyero (Upper Lake Victoria Region, Uganda) aiming to characterize for the first time both the composition of the red and white pigments of the drawings (mainly representing concentric circles, and shapes resembling vegetables, boats and other stylized forms) and determine their age. The rock panels were classified as metamorphic rocks (gneiss), containing quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase, microcline and muscovite. Such minerals were also found in the paints, though the red drawings also showed the presence of Fe-oxides, which were practically absent in the white ones where kaolinite was recognized. A consistent amount of Ca-oxalates was found to be well distributed through the white and red pigments, suggesting its origin in the organic binder used to properly spread the pigments onto the rock panels. Thus, the 14C ages on the Ca-oxalates are to be considered as the age of the paint. The 68% probability time intervals of calibrated ages for the white and red pigments were in cal 2880–2280 BCE and 1390–1010, respectively, demonstrating >1000 years time gap between them. This difference was also pronounced in motifs of complexity. The red drawings (attributable to settled or semi-settled societies) are richer in styles, forms and patterns than the white ones, the latter being likely related to a nomadic population as also suggested by the simpler drawing techniques. Our results have important implications for integrating semiotics and anthropologic studies, to delimit the boundaries of a homogeneous cultural area and shedding new light on human settlement dynamics and change from nomadic lifestyle to settling during the Late Stone Age in East Africa.

Shifting dynamics of Chinese settlement in Australia: an urban geographic perspective

AbstractThe so‐called Asian Century has brought with it sweeping changes in the profile of migration to Australia. This paper focuses on examining post‐2000 migration from Mainland China, which has rapidly ascended to now become Australia's top non‐Commonwealth country of origin. Significantly, the profile of post‐2000 Mainland China‐born (MC‐born) migrants has changed to mirror broader global shifts towards highly skilled, education‐related, and investment‐focused migration, all of which reflect the mobility of wealthy and/or educated cohorts. Little empirical work has focused on the degree to which this change in the profile of migration has led to the formation of novel settlement patterns. This paper aims to examine the socio‐economic characteristics of MC‐born migrants in Australian cities, to identify sub‐metropolitan areas of concentration, and to visualise spatial change in settlement patterns over time. The data indicate that although Sydney is still home to half of MC‐born migrants at a national scale, the number of migrants has increased at a more rapid rate in medium‐sized capital cities such as Adelaide and Perth. Results reveal an increasingly decentralised and suburbanised concentration of MC‐born migrants at a metropolitan scale that is linked to areas of earlier Chinese settlement, or corresponding to access to educational resources and employment opportunities. The observed patterns support the segmented assimilation theory in that the spatial settlement patterns among MC‐born migrants assume variegated forms based on individuals' socio‐economic characteristics and metropolitan‐scale factors.

Quantitative Responses of Satellite-Derived Nighttime Lighting Signals to Anthropogenic Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes across China

Remotely sensed artificial lighting radiances at night can provide spatially explicit proxy measures of the magnitude of human activity. Satellite-derived nighttime light images, mainly provided by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB), have been increasingly used to study demographic and socioeconomic activities for a wide range of issues—for instance, human population dynamics, economic growth, and urbanization process—at multiple scales. In practice, the lack of texture information regarding man-made surfaces would usually lead to substantial difficulty in delineating the spatial dynamics in human settlements due to the diverse distributions of artificial nocturnal lighting sources, which are closely related to the predominant land-use/land-cover (LULC) types and their evolutions. An understanding of how nighttime lighting signals respond to synchronous anthropogenic LULC changes, therefore, is crucially important for the spatiotemporal investigations of human settlement dynamics. In this study, we used DMSP-derived nighttime light (NTL) data and Landsat-derived LULC maps to quantitatively estimate the pixel-level responses of NTL signals to different types of human-induced LULC conversions between 1995 and 2010 across China. Our results suggest that the majority (>70%) of pixel-level LULC conversions into artificial lands (including urban, rural, and built-up lands) might show a statistically significant increase in nighttime brightness with an average >20 (in digital number, DN) step change in nighttime lights (dNTL), both of which are distinctly higher than that in the LULC conversions into non-man-made surfaces on the whole. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve-based analysis implies that we might have an average chance of ~90% to identify the nationwide LULC conversions into man-made surfaces from all types of conversions through the observed changes in artificial nocturnal luminosity signals. Moreover, ROC curve-based analyses also yield two nation-level optimal dNTL thresholds of 4.8 and 7.8 DN for recognizing newly emerged three types of artificial lands and urban lands between 1995 and 2010 across the entire country, respectively. In short, our findings reveal fundamental insights into the quantitative connections between the anthropogenic LULC changes and the corresponding responses of synchronous nightlight signals at the pixel-level, which are generally essential for further applications of satellite-derived nocturnal luminosity data in the spatiotemporal investigations of human settlement dynamics.