利用夜间灯光数据分析我国社会经济发展的区域不均衡特征

Analyzing Regional Inequality of Socioeconomic Development in China with Nighttime Light

夜间灯光遥感数据与人口和经济变量具有较好的相关性,已经广泛用于研究城市扩张和人类社会经济活动。采用VIIRS灯光数据定量化地分析了我国30个省(直辖市)的灯光辐射值对GDP、人口统计数据的响应情况。利用线性回归方法从地级市和省级两个尺度分析了灯光、GDP和人口的相关性。研究发现灯光辐射值与GDP、人口在多个空间尺度均存在显著的正相关性。采用经济学研究中常用的基尼(Gini)系数和不对称洛伦兹(Lasym)系数,从地级市和县级尺度上计算各省灯光、GDP和人口对应的得分值,探索各省社会经济不均衡情况。结果表明:各省在县级尺度上的不均衡比地级市尺度上严重;人口加权的灯光不均衡系数表明我国西部不发达地区的社会经济不均衡情况比东部发达地区严重。灯光Lasym系数表明不均衡状况比较严重的省份主要是由个别比较发达的区域引起。研究结果表明:基于灯光数据探索社会经济发展不均衡情况,可以从不同空间尺度分析问题,弥补了常规统计数据时间和空间不连续的问题。

Satellite-derived nighttime light （NTL）data have been extensively used as an efficient proxy measure for monitoring urbanization dynamics and socioeconomic activity.This is because remotely sensed NTL signals can be quantitatively connected to demographic and socioeconomic variables. The recently composited cloud-free NTL imagery derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite （VIIRS） provides spatially detailed observations of human settlements. We quantitatively estimated socioeconomic development inequalities across 30 provinces andmunicipalities in China's Mainland using VIIRS NTL data associated with both regional gross domestic product （GDP）and population census data.We quantitatively investigated relations between NTL,GDP,and population using a linear regression model.Our results sug- gest that NTL have significant positive correlations with GDP and population at different levels.Several in- equality coefficients were derived from VIIRS data and statistical data at multiple spatial scales. NTL-de- rived inequality coefficients enabled us to elicit more detailed information on differences in regional devel- opment at multiple levels. Our study of provinces and municipalities revealed that county-level inequality was more significant than city-level.The results of population-weighted NTL inequality indicate an obvious regional disparity with NTL distribution being more unequal in China＇s undeveloped western regions com- pared with eastern regions.Our findings suggest that given the timely and spatially explicit advantages of VIIRS,NTL data are capable of providing comprehensive information regarding inequality at multiple lev- els ,which is not possible through the use of traditional statistical sources.