{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T16:18:47Z","timestamp":1777565927241,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,1]],"date-time":"2018-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1530403200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"HASTIT","award":["16HASTIT022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16HASTIT022"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"NSFC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41371525"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41371525"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"NSFC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41430637"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41430637"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"IRTSTHN","award":["16IRTSTHN012"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16IRTSTHN012"]}]},{"name":"JOF","award":["201702"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["201702"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>One of the side-effects generated by mainland China\u2019s urbanization process is \u201cghost cities\u201d\u2014generally defined as clusters of abandoned buildings or housing structures\u2014but there is a notable lack of studies on the basic characteristics related to this phenomenon, such as size, growth, level, distribution, scale, intensity, pattern and determinants. Through a combination of nighttime satellite data and daytime satellite data as a useful proxy, in this paper, we present the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of China\u2019s ghost cities over the last two decades. Nighttime light\u2019s rate of change in newly built areas is developed based on DMSP\/OLS and Normalized Difference Built-up Index to assess a city\u2019s darkness. Results show that the ghost city problem is real, but, at least so far, confined to 22 smaller cities. However, further analysis reveals that nighttime lights change in newly built areas, following an inverted U-curve for big cities representing a reversion from positive to negative values for the trends in recent years. The methodology through the use of the complementary characteristics in time between DMSP\/OLS and Landsat data in our study prove to serve as deposing the direct evidences to ascertain and quantify such social-economic phenomenon.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10071037","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,2]],"date-time":"2018-07-02T10:56:52Z","timestamp":1530529012000},"page":"1037","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Mapping China\u2019s Ghost Cities through the Combination of Nighttime Satellite Data and Daytime Satellite Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9443-4031","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heli","family":"Lu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions of Ministry of Education &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province\/Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center of Urban-Rural Coordinated Development of Henan Province, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9165-5584","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chuanrong","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography &amp; Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-4148, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Guifang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions of Ministry of Education &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province\/Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center of Urban-Rural Coordinated Development of Henan Province, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8838-9476","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinyue","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography and Computational Social Science Lab, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Changhong","family":"Miao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions of Ministry of Education &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province\/Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development &amp; Collaborative Innovation Center of Urban-Rural Coordinated Development of Henan Province, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"294","DOI":"10.1080\/21622671.2015.1005125","article-title":"Territorial urbanization and the party-state in China","volume":"3","author":"Cartier","year":"2015","journal-title":"Territory Polit. 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