Monitoring urbanization dynamics in the Southeast U.S. using DMSP/OLS nightlight time series

摘要

The Southeast U.S. is listed one of the fastest growing regions by the Census Bureau. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)'s Operational Line-scan System (OLS) nighttime light (NTL) imagery offers a good opportunity for characterizing the extent and dynamics of urban development at global and regional scales. However, their ability to characterize inter-urban variation is limited due to saturation of the data values. In this study, we propose a novel approach to extract urban areas based on Vegetation Adjusted NTL Urban Index (VANUI) which integrates the NTL and optical reflectance data. The built-up areas were detected for major metropolitan areas in the Southeast U.S. Using the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products of percent imperviousness (2001, 2006, and 2010) as reference data, accuracy assessment indicated that our approach achieved satisfactory results. Based on these results, the spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization in the U.S. Southeast region were analyzed.