{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:12:32Z","timestamp":1760145152226,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,19]],"date-time":"2024-06-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1718755200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Municipal Social Science Foundation of Guangzhou","award":["2023GZGJ27","24QN004"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023GZGJ27","24QN004"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Accurately identifying the spatial range of urban agglomerations holds significant practical importance for the precise allocation of various elements and coordinated development within urban agglomerations. However, current research predominantly focuses on the physical spaces of urban agglomerations, overlooking their sphere of influence. This study begins with the spatial interactions of population elements within urban agglomerations and fuses Weibo sign-in data with NTL data to identify the spatial range of urban agglomerations. It further compares and validates the results before and after the fusion of data. The results reveal that the accuracy of identifying the spatial range of urban agglomerations with the fusion of NTL data and Weibo sign-in data has improved by 7%, with a Kappa increase of 0.1766 compared to using NTL data alone, which indicates that fusing social media data can significantly enhance the accuracy of identifying the spatial range of urban agglomerations. This study proposes a novel approach for identifying the spatial range of urban agglomerations through the fusion of NTL data and social media data from a data fusion perspective. On one hand, it supplements the application of data fusion in the study of urban agglomeration spaces; on the other hand, it accurately identifies the spatial range of urban agglomerations, which holds great practical value for the sustainable development of urban agglomerations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi13060214","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,19]],"date-time":"2024-06-19T11:47:17Z","timestamp":1718797637000},"page":"214","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Identifying the Spatial Range of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration by Fusing Nighttime Light Data with Weibo Sign-In Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2645-2828","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yongwang","family":"Cao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Finance, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China"},{"name":"Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou 510410, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2827-6319","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Song","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou 510410, China"}]},{"given":"Zaigao","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou 510410, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2017.02.014","article-title":"Urban agglomeration: An evolving concept of an emerging phenomenon","volume":"162","author":"Fang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1666","article-title":"Identifying Urban Agglomerations in China Based on Density-Density Correlation Functions","volume":"112","author":"Tan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ann. Am. Assoc. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102882","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2020.102882","article-title":"Urban network externalities, agglomeration economies and urban economic growth","volume":"107","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104224","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2022.104224","article-title":"Measuring the coupling of built-up land intensity and use efficiency: An example of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration","volume":"87","author":"Ruan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, W., Li, B., Su, F., Jiang, Z., and Chen, S. (2023). Identifying Ecological Security Patterns Meeting Future Urban Expansion in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Urban Agglomeration, China. Remote Sens., 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15123141"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, S., Guo, H., Sun, Z., Liu, Z., Jiang, H., and Zhang, H. (2023). Patterns of Typical Chinese Urban Agglomerations Based on Complex Spatial Network Analysis. Remote Sens., 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15040920"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102801","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2020.102801","article-title":"The spatial integration and coordinated industrial development of urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China","volume":"104","author":"Liu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105939","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landusepol.2021.105939","article-title":"Integrated regional development: Comparison of urban agglomeration policies in China","volume":"114","author":"Li","year":"2022","journal-title":"Land Use Policy"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1611","DOI":"10.1177\/2399808318755146","article-title":"Defining urban clusters to detect agglomeration economies","volume":"46","author":"Cottineau","year":"2019","journal-title":"Environ. Plan. B Urban Anal. City Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101911","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2022.101911","article-title":"A building volume adjusted nighttime light index for characterizing the relationship between urban population and nighttime light intensity","volume":"99","author":"Wu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104388","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2023.104388","article-title":"Does urbanization level and types of urban settlements matter for child stunting prevalence in India? Empirical evidence based on nighttime lights data","volume":"140","author":"Sharma","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"421","DOI":"10.1007\/s10980-019-00956-y","article-title":"Spatiotemporal evolution of urban agglomerations in China during 2000\u20132012: A nighttime light approach","volume":"35","author":"Peng","year":"2020","journal-title":"Landsc. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"He, X., Cao, Y., and Zhou, C. (2021). Evaluation of Polycentric Spatial Structure in the Urban Agglomeration of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Based on Multi-Source Big Data Fusion. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13183639"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"He, X., Yuan, X., Zhang, D., Zhang, R., Li, M., and Zhou, C. (2021). Delineation of Urban Agglomeration Boundary Based on Multisource Big Data Fusion\u2014A Case Study of Guangdong\u2013Hong Kong\u2013Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13091801"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104284","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2023.104284","article-title":"The role of planning policy in the evolution of the spatial structure of the Guangzhou metropolitan area in China","volume":"137","author":"He","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Priyashani, N., Kankanamge, N., and Yigitcanlar, T. (2023). Multisource Open Geospatial Big Data Fusion: Application of the Method to Demarcate Urban Agglomeration Footprints. Land, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/land12020407"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"456","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2019.03.052","article-title":"Spatial urban data system: A cloud-enabled big data infrastructure for social and economic urban analytics","volume":"98","author":"Anejionu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1737","DOI":"10.1080\/07352166.2021.2021085","article-title":"Reconciling big data and thick data to advance the new urban science and smart city governance","volume":"45","author":"Hong","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Urban Aff."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"180","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2016.08.014","article-title":"Delineation of an urban agglomeration boundary based on Sina Weibo microblog \u2018check-in\u2019 data: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta","volume":"60","author":"Zhen","year":"2017","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"508","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2018.11.039","article-title":"Extraction and monitoring approach of dynamic urban commercial area using check-in data from Weibo","volume":"45","author":"Hu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1080\/10630732.2016.1177259","article-title":"Using Location-Based Social Media to Chart the Patterns of People Moving between Cities: The Case of Weibo-Users in the Yangtze River Delta","volume":"23","author":"Zhang","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Urban Technol."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"110","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2017.07.002","article-title":"Inferring urban air quality based on social media","volume":"66","author":"Wang","year":"2016","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2436","DOI":"10.1177\/2399808320980748","article-title":"Understanding Chinese tourist mobility and consumption-related behaviours in London using Sina Weibo check-ins","volume":"48","author":"Ye","year":"2021","journal-title":"Environ. Plan. B Urban Anal. City Sci."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1097","DOI":"10.1177\/2399808317752926","article-title":"Assessing nighttime lights for mapping the urban areas of 50 cities across the globe","volume":"46","author":"Bagan","year":"2019","journal-title":"Environ. Plan. B Urban Anal. City Sci."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1077","DOI":"10.1177\/0265813516658477","article-title":"A comparison of nighttime lights data for urban energy research: Insights from scaling analysis in the US system of cities","volume":"44","author":"Fragkias","year":"2017","journal-title":"Environ. Plan. B Urban Anal. City Sci."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102719","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2020.102719","article-title":"Quantifying the bias in place emotion extracted from photos on social networking sites: A case study on a university campus","volume":"102","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Peng, Z., Wang, R., Liu, L., and Wu, H. (2020). Exploring Urban Spatial Features of COVID-19 Transmission in Wuhan Based on Social Media Data. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi9060402"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, X., Sun, Y., Zheng, A., and Wang, Y. (2020). A New Approach to Refining Land Use Types: Predicting Point-of-Interest Categories Using Weibo Check-in Data. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi9020124"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2716","DOI":"10.1111\/tgis.12982","article-title":"Point-of-interest detection from Weibo data for map updating","volume":"26","author":"Yang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trans. GIS"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2015.03.006","article-title":"Understanding urban China with open data","volume":"47","author":"Liu","year":"2015","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1232","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2015.2390133","article-title":"A Novel Image Classification Algorithm Using Overcomplete Wavelet Transforms","volume":"12","author":"Myint","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2018.03.008","article-title":"A new approach for urban-rural fringe identification: Integrating impervious surface area and spatial continuous wavelet transform","volume":"175","author":"Peng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"He, X., Zhou, C., Zhang, J., and Yuan, X. (2020). Using wavelet transforms to fuse nighttime light data and POI big data to extract urban built-up areas. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12233887"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhou, Y., He, X., and Zhu, Y. (2022). Identification and evaluation of the polycentric urban structure: An empirical analysis based on multi-source big data fusion. Remote Sens., 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14112705"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2013.11.018","article-title":"Automated parameterisation for multi-scale image segmentation on multiple layers","volume":"88","author":"Csillik","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105016","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cities.2024.105016","article-title":"The coordination relationship between urban development and urban life satisfaction in Chinese cities\u2014An empirical analysis based on multi-source data","volume":"150","author":"He","year":"2024","journal-title":"Cities"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"05023010","DOI":"10.1061\/JUPDDM.UPENG-4160","article-title":"Identification of Urban Spatial Structure of Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration Based on Multisource Spatial Data","volume":"149","author":"Deng","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Urban Plan. Dev."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6717","DOI":"10.3390\/rs5126717","article-title":"Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day\/Night Band","volume":"5","author":"Miller","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, B., Zhu, Y., He, X., and Zhou, C. (2023). Analysis of High-Quality Tourism Destinations Based on Spatiotemporal Big Data\u2014A Case Study of Urumqi. Land, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/land12071425"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"044512","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JRS.14.044512","article-title":"Improved U-Nets with inception blocks for building detection","volume":"14","author":"Delibasoglu","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Appl. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sultonov, F., Park, J., Yun, S., Lim, D., and Kang, J. (2022). Mixer U-Net: An Improved Automatic Road Extraction from UAV Imagery. Appl. Sci., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/app12041953"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, J., Zhang, X., Tan, X., and Yuan, X. (2022). Extraction of Urban Built-Up Area Based on Deep Learning and Multi-Sources Data Fusion\u2014The Application of an Emerging Technology in Urban Planning. Land, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/land11081212"},{"key":"ref_43","first-page":"2061","article-title":"The Mining of Urban Hotspots Based on Multi-source Location Data Fusion","volume":"35","author":"Cai","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93513","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3203433","article-title":"Using POI Data and Baidu Migration Big Data to Modify Nighttime Light Data to Identify Urban and Rural Area","volume":"10","author":"Chen","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_45","first-page":"1081","article-title":"Sub-pixel confusion\u2013uncertainty matrix for assessing soft classifications","volume":"112","author":"Wang","year":"2007","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Han, H., and Li, H. (2020). Coupling Coordination Evaluation between Population and Land Urbanization in Ha-Chang Urban Agglomeration. Sustainability, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/su12010357"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"332","DOI":"10.1016\/j.regsciurbeco.2008.12.002","article-title":"A meta-analysis of estimates of urban agglomeration economies","volume":"39","author":"Melo","year":"2008","journal-title":"Reg. Sci. Urban Econ."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57706","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-021-14655-2","article-title":"Polycentric or monocentric, which kind of spatial structure is better for promoting the green economy? Evidence from Chinese urban agglomerations","volume":"28","author":"Huang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1290","DOI":"10.1080\/00343404.2015.1034667","article-title":"Do Urban Social Enterprises Benefit from Agglomeration? Evidence from Four UK Cities","volume":"50","author":"Pinch","year":"2015","journal-title":"Reg. Stud."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kong, L., Wu, Q., Deng, J., Bai, L., Chen, Z., Du, Z., and Luo, M. (2023). Assessing Regional Development Balance Based on Zipf\u2019s Law: The Case of Chinese Urban Agglomerations. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi12120472"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tian, X., Batterham, P., Song, S., Yao, X., and Yu, G. (2018). Characterizing Depression Issues on Sina Weibo. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph15040764"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"210","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2017.06.039","article-title":"Using multi-source geospatial big data to identify the structure of polycentric cities","volume":"202","author":"Cai","year":"2017","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"04022015","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000834","article-title":"Multiperspective Evaluation Model for the Spatial Distribution of Public Service Facilities Based on Service Capability and Subjective Preferences","volume":"148","author":"Zhan","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Urban Plan. Dev."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"130681","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclepro.2022.130681","article-title":"Spatiotemporal changes in ecological network resilience in the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration","volume":"339","author":"Huang","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Clean. Prod."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104482","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2022.104482","article-title":"How do different types and landscape attributes of urban parks affect visitors\u2019 positive emotions?","volume":"226","author":"Kong","year":"2022","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."}],"container-title":["ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2220-9964\/13\/6\/214\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T15:01:11Z","timestamp":1760108471000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2220-9964\/13\/6\/214"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,19]]},"references-count":55,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6]]}},"alternative-id":["ijgi13060214"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijgi13060214","relation":{},"ISSN":["2220-9964"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2220-9964"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,19]]}}}