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Population Spatial Distribution Based on Luojia 1–01 Nighttime Light Image: A Case Study of Beijing

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Abstract

With the continuous development of urbanization in China, the country’s growing population brings great challenges to urban development. By mastering the refined population spatial distribution in administrative units, the quantity and agglomeration of population distribution can be estimated and visualized. It will provide a basis for a more rational urban planning. This paper takes Beijing as the research area and uses a new Luojia1–01 nighttime light image with high resolution, land use type data, Points of Interest (POI) data, and other data to construct the population spatial index system, establishing the index weight based on the principal component analysis. The comprehensive weight value of population distribution in the study area was then used to calculate the street population distribution of Beijing in 2018. Then the population spatial distribution was visualize using GIS technology. After accuracy assessments by comparing the result with the WorldPop data, the accuracy has reached 0.74. The proposed method was validated as a qualified method to generate population spatial maps. By contrast of local areas, Luojia 1–01 data is more suitable for population distribution estimation than the NPP/VIIRS (Net Primary Productivity/Visible infrared Imaging Radiometer) nighttime light data. More geospatial big data and mathematical models can be combined to create more accurate population maps in the future.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the undergraduate students and staff of the Laboratory of Forest Management and ‘3S’ technology from Beijing Forestry University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of GIS, RS & GPS, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lu Sun, Jia Wang & Shuping Chang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Precise Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lu Sun, Jia Wang & Shuping Chang

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  1. Lu Sun
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  2. Jia Wang
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  3. Shuping Chang
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Correspondence to Jia Wang.

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Foundation item

Under the auspices of Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42071342, 31870713), Beijing Natural Science Foundation Program (No. 8182038), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2015ZCQ-LX-01, 2018ZY06)

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Sun, L., Wang, J. & Chang, S. Population Spatial Distribution Based on Luojia 1–01 Nighttime Light Image: A Case Study of Beijing. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 31, 966–978 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-021-1240-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-021-1240-6

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