Monitoring of the human activities from DMSP/OLS nighttime imageries

Abstract

Here, we illustrate the use of Defence Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) night-time imageries as a dataset to monitor human activities and urban change at regional scale. With the new approach, Compounded Night Light Index (CNLI) was extracted from DMSP/OLS imageries and this process was applied in a special time series from 2000 to 2010. Spatial patterns of CNLI changes showed that human activities such as urbanization and industrialization more dominated in the central-southern parts and coastal areas. In the end, this paper identifies that the mentioned human activities are sharply rising, and its consequences on the environment must be mutually considered. © 2018 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.