{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T20:01:56Z","timestamp":1770753716235,"version":"3.50.0"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,3]],"date-time":"2023-03-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1677801600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["42101275"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42101275"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["42071254"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42071254"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["CUGL170408"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUGL170408"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["CUGGG-2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUGGG-2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences","award":["42101275"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42101275"]}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences","award":["42071254"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42071254"]}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences","award":["CUGL170408"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUGL170408"]}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences","award":["CUGGG-2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUGGG-2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigates whether the intensity of human activities conducted by urban populations and carried by urban land follows a wave-shaped diffusion rule using a harmonized DMSP-like NTL dataset during 1992\u20132018 in 234 cities of China. The results show that variations in the intensity of human activities are diffused in a wave-shaped manner from the urban center to the periphery in cities of different sizes and structures. The results demonstrate that variations in the intensity of human activity also exhibit a wave-shaped diffusion pattern, which is best modeled by a Gaussian function with an average R2 of 0.79 and standard deviation of 0.36 across all fitted functions. The outward movement of these waves in monocentric cities with an urban population &lt;8 million occurred at a pace of ~0.5\u20131.0 km per year, reaching an average distance of ~18 km from the urban centers. While the pace decreased to ~0.2\u20130.6 km per year in larger or polycentric cities, the average distance of the waves from the urban centers increased to ~22\u201325 km in these larger cities. In addition, a process-pattern link between the distance-decayed rule and the wave-shaped rule of human activity dynamics was established. Moreover, a spatiotemporal Gaussian function was further discussed to enable modelers to forecast future variations in the intensity of human activities. The disclosed wave-shape rule and model can benefit the simulation of urban dynamics if integrated with other simulation technologies, such as agent-based models and cellular automata.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15051426","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,3]],"date-time":"2023-03-03T02:27:25Z","timestamp":1677810445000},"page":"1426","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Spatial Diffusion Waves of Human Activities: Evidence from Harmonized Nighttime Light Data during 1992\u20132018 in 234 Cities of China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Jianxin","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"},{"name":"Key Labs of Law Evaluation of Ministry of Land and Resources of China, 388 Lumo Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Man","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Shengbing","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Danxia","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Yingge","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Daiyi","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Yunze","family":"Dai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Collaborative Innovation Center for Emissions Trading System Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China"},{"name":"School of Low Carbon Economics, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"},{"name":"Key Labs of Law Evaluation of Ministry of Land and Resources of China, 388 Lumo Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430074, China"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Gong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China"},{"name":"Key Labs of Law Evaluation of Ministry of Land and Resources of China, 388 Lumo Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430074, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2018.11.005","article-title":"How does urban population density decline over time? 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