{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T03:30:00Z","timestamp":1775705400882,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,8]],"date-time":"2018-01-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1515369600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the NSFC Key Program","award":["41590845"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41590845"]}]},{"name":"the NSFC Innovation Research Group Project","award":["41421001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41421001"]}]},{"name":"the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China","award":["2015CB954101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2015CB954101"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Intraregional spatial variations of satellite-derived anthropogenic nighttime light signals are gradually applied to identify different lighting areas with various socioeconomic activity and urbanization levels when characterizing urbanization dynamics. However, most previous partitioning approaches are carried out at local scales, easily leading to multi-standards of the extracted results from local areas, and this inevitably hinders the comparative analysis on the urbanization dynamics of the large region. Therefore, a partitioning approach considering the characteristics of nighttime light signals at both local and regional scales is necessary for studying spatiotemporal characteristics of urbanization dynamics across the large region using nighttime light imagery. Based on the quadratic relationships between the pixel-level nighttime light brightness and the corresponding spatial gradient for individual cities, we here proposed an improved partitioning approach to quickly identify different types of nighttime lighting areas for the entire region of Southeast Asia. Using the calibrated Defense Meteorological Satellite Program\/Operational Line-scan System (DMSP\/OLS) data with greater comparability, continuity, and intra-urban variability, the annual nighttime light imagery spanning years 1992\u20132013 were divided into four types of nighttime lighting areas: low, medium, high, and extremely high, associated with different intensity of anthropogenic activity. The results suggest that Southeast Asia has experienced a rapid and diverse urbanization process from 1992 to 2013. Areas with moderate or low anthropogenic activity show a faster growth rate for the spatial expansion than the developed areas with intense anthropogenic activity. Transitions between different nighttime lighting types potentially depict the trajectory of urban development, the darker areas are gradually transitioning to areas with higher lighting, indicating conspicuous trends of gradually intensified anthropogenic activity from central areas to periphery areas, and from megacities to small cities. Additionally, satellite-derived nighttime lighting areas are in good agreement with the radar-derived human settlements, with dense human settlements in extremely high and high nighttime lighting areas, while sparse human settlements in low nighttime lighting areas.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10010047","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,8]],"date-time":"2018-01-08T12:26:02Z","timestamp":1515414362000},"page":"47","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":73,"title":["Assessing Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Urbanization Dynamics in Southeast Asia Using Time Series of DMSP\/OLS Nighttime Light Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2086-4506","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Min","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China"},{"name":"Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing 210093, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1580-4979","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Weiming","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographic Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China"}]},{"given":"Chenghu","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China"},{"name":"Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing 210093, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographic Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China"}]},{"given":"Manchun","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China"},{"name":"Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing 210093, China"}]},{"given":"Kun","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China"}]},{"given":"Nan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techsoc.2005.10.005","article-title":"Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability","volume":"28","author":"Cohen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Technol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"761","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1153012","article-title":"The urban transformation of the developing world","volume":"319","author":"Montgomery","year":"2008","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhao, M., Cheng, W.M., Zhou, C.H., Li, M.C., Wang, N., and Liu, Q.Y. (2017). GDP spatialization and economic differences in South China based on NPP-VIIRS nighttime light imagery. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9070673"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"717","DOI":"10.1068\/a3327","article-title":"Environmental impacts of urban sprawl: A survey of the literature and proposed research agenda","volume":"33","author":"Johnson","year":"2001","journal-title":"Environ. Plan. A"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"422","DOI":"10.2747\/0272-3638.13.5.422","article-title":"The environmental consequences of urban growth: Cross-national perspectives on economic development, air pollution, and city size","volume":"13","author":"Shukla","year":"1992","journal-title":"Urban Geogr."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.5194\/sg-7-23-2012","article-title":"The night light development index (NLDI): A spatially explicit measure of human development from satellite data","volume":"7","author":"Elvidge","year":"2012","journal-title":"Soc. Geogr. Discuss."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"77","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(98)00098-4","article-title":"Radiance calibration of DMSP-OLS low-light imaging data of human settlements","volume":"68","author":"Elvidge","year":"1999","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4988","DOI":"10.3390\/su5124988","article-title":"Using nighttime satellite imagery as a proxy measure of human well-being","volume":"5","author":"Ghosh","year":"2013","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"148","article-title":"Shedding light on the global distribution of economic activity","volume":"3","author":"Ghosh","year":"2010","journal-title":"Open Geogr."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(03)00078-6","article-title":"A scale-adjusted measure of \u201cUrban sprawl\u201d using nighttime satellite imagery","volume":"86","author":"Sutton","year":"2003","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3061","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160010007015","article-title":"Census from heaven: An estimate of the global human population using night-time satellite imagery","volume":"22","author":"Sutton","year":"2001","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhao, M., Cheng, W.M., Zhou, C.H., Li, M.C., Wang, N., and Liu, Q.Y. (2017). Spatial differentiation and morphologic characteristics of China\u2019s urban core zones based on geomorphologic partition. J. Appl. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JRS.11.016041"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"531","DOI":"10.1007\/s11442-016-1284-1","article-title":"Spatiotemporal measurement of urbanization levels based on multiscale units: A case study of the Bohai Rim Region in China","volume":"26","author":"Zhao","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Geogr. Sci."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8589","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1017031108","article-title":"Using luminosity data as a proxy for economic statistics","volume":"108","author":"Chen","year":"2011","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"75","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2005.03.007","article-title":"Mapping regional economic activity from night-time light satellite imagery","volume":"57","author":"Doll","year":"2006","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"99","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.04.018","article-title":"Quantitative estimation of urbanization dynamics using time series of DMSP\/OLS nighttime light data: A comparative case study from China\u2019s cities","volume":"124","author":"Ma","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2320","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.04.032","article-title":"Mapping urbanization dynamics at regional and global scales using multi-temporal DMSP\/OLS nighttime light data","volume":"115","author":"Zhang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1242","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70201242","article-title":"Nighttime light derived assessment of regional inequality of socioeconomic development in China","volume":"7","author":"Zhou","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2205","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2009.06.001","article-title":"A SVM-based method to extract urban areas from DMSP-OLS and SPOT VGT data","volume":"113","author":"Cao","year":"2009","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"595","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160304982","article-title":"Validation of urban boundaries derived from global night-time satellite imagery","volume":"24","author":"Henderson","year":"2003","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4095","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2014.2302855","article-title":"Detecting China\u2019s urban expansion over the past three decades using nighttime light data","volume":"7","author":"Xiao","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2016.10.002","article-title":"Updating urban extents with nighttime light imagery by using an object-based thresholding method","volume":"187","author":"Xie","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2014.03.004","article-title":"A cluster-based method to map urban area from DMSP\/OLS nightlights","volume":"147","author":"Zhou","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens Environ."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"727","article-title":"Mapping city lights with nighttime data from the DMSP operational linescan system","volume":"63","author":"Elvidge","year":"1997","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"361","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(97)00046-1","article-title":"A technique for using composite DMSP-OLS \u201cCity Lights\u201d satellite data to map urban area","volume":"61","author":"Imhoff","year":"1997","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6073","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2017.1346846","article-title":"Assessing urban growth dynamics of major Southeast Asian cities using night-time light data","volume":"38","author":"Kamarajugedda","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"453","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2014.11.022","article-title":"Night-time light derived estimation of spatio-temporal characteristics of urbanization dynamics using DMSP\/OLS satellite data","volume":"158","author":"Ma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"218","DOI":"10.1080\/15481603.2015.1007778","article-title":"A new method for extracting built-up urban areas using DMSP-OLS nighttime stable lights: A case study in the Pearl River Delta, southern China","volume":"52","author":"Su","year":"2015","journal-title":"GISci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"680","article-title":"Different characteristics and driving factors of the comprehensive urbanization levels of countries in Southeast Asia","volume":"35","author":"Wang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Trop. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"144","DOI":"10.1080\/00074918.2014.896312","article-title":"Urbanization in Southeast Asia: Issues and impacts","volume":"50","author":"Aritenang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Bull. Indones. Econ. Stud."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"436","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cosust.2012.09.007","article-title":"Urban sustainability and human health in China, East Asia and Southeast Asia","volume":"4","author":"Li","year":"2012","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"595","DOI":"10.3390\/en20300595","article-title":"A fifteen year record of global natural gas flaring derived from satellite data","volume":"2","author":"Elvidge","year":"2009","journal-title":"Energies"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2012.02.013","article-title":"Extracting the dynamics of urban expansion in China using DMSP-OLS nighttime light data from 1992 to 2008","volume":"106","author":"Liu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7356","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2013.820365","article-title":"Intercalibration of DMSP-OLS night-time light data by the invariant region method","volume":"34","author":"Wu","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.10.022","article-title":"The vegetation adjusted NTL urban index: A new approach to reduce saturation and increase variation in nighttime luminosity","volume":"129","author":"Zhang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1614","DOI":"10.1007\/s11434-006-2006-3","article-title":"Restoring urbanization process in China in the 1990s by using non-radiance-calibrated DMSP\/OLS nighttime light imagery and statistical data","volume":"51","author":"He","year":"2006","journal-title":"Chin. Sci. Bull."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1007\/s11442-014-1082-6","article-title":"Spatiotemporal characteristics, patterns, and causes of land-use changes in China since the late 1980s","volume":"24","author":"Liu","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Geogr. Sci."},{"key":"ref_38","first-page":"70","article-title":"Nighttime lights compositing using the VIIRS day-night band: Preliminary results","volume":"35","author":"Baugh","year":"2013","journal-title":"Proc. Asia Pac. Adv. Netw."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15706","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1207034109","article-title":"Suomi satellite brings to light a unique frontier of nighttime environmental sensing capabilities","volume":"109","author":"Miller","year":"2012","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhu, X.B., Ma, M.G., Yang, H., and Ge, W. (2017). Modeling the spatiotemporal dynamics of gross domestic product in China using extended temporal coverage nighttime light data. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9060626"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/10\/1\/47\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T14:50:26Z","timestamp":1760194226000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/10\/1\/47"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,8]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1]]}},"alternative-id":["rs10010047"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs10010047","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,8]]}}}