Analyzing Parcel-Level Relationships between Urban Land Expansion and Activity Changes by Integrating Landsat and Nighttime Light Data

Urban growth is a process that imposes profound physical and socioeconomic restructuring on cities. Urban land expansion as an immediate physical manifestation of urban growth has been extensively studied using a variety of remote sensing methods. However, little research addresses the interactions between urban land expansion and corresponding activity changes, especially at local scales. We propose an innovative analytical framework that integrates Landsat and nighttime light data to capture the parcel-level relationships between urban land expansion and activity changes. The urban land data are acquired based on the classification of Landsat images, whereas the activity changes are approximated by the nighttime light data. Using the Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) (local Moran’s I) approach, four types of local relationships between land expansion and activity changes are defined at the parcel level. The proposed analytical framework is applied in Guangzhou, China, as a case study. The results reveal the mismatched growth between urban land and activity intensity at the parcel level, where the increase in urban land area outpaces the increase of activity intensity. Such results are expected to provide a more comprehensive understanding of urban growth, and can be used to assist urban planning and related decision-making.