GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIO- 
ECONOMIC MODELLING FROM NIGHT-TIME LIGHT REMOTE SENSING DATA 
C. N. H. Doll^*, J. G. Morley®, J-P. Muller * 
* Dept. of Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Gower Street, London WCIE 6BT, United Kingdom. 
(cdoll, jmorley, jpmuller) @ge.ucl.ac.uk 
Commission VII, WG VII/6 
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, GIS, Human Settlement, Urban, Mapping, Modeling, Economy 
ABSTRACT: 
The ability to model socio-economic parameters from remote sensing data sources is an important element in addressing the data 
gap that currently exists for linking human and physical systems in Earth system models. The provision of information about such 
parameters in a gridded format would be highly advantageous for incorporation with other environmental datasets within a 
Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. This paper outlines some of the geographical information issues encountered 
in a recent study to analyse and map the relationship between night-time radiance from the Defense Meteorological Satellite 
Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for countries in the European Union 
and the United States. Relationships between total radiance and GDP were constructed at a number of sub-national spatial scales. 
These relationships were then used to create maps of economic activity for these regions at an enhanced spatial resolution of 5km. 
The use of calibration statistics from administrative areas of different sizes gave rise to issues such as the Modifiable Area Unit 
Problem (MAUP) and the Ecological Fallacy. Correlation coefficients of these relationships were found to be highly variable as a 
result of the MAUP. Analysis of different economic sectors revealed that the overall relationship is a combination of different 
relationships for the different economic sectors present in any given administrative area. This paper not only intends to highlight 
how one may use remote sensing data to successfully create a map of economic activity compatible for use within a GIS, but also to 
demonstrate the complementarity between remote sensing and GIS at every level of analysis. 
1. INTRODUCTION but closely related components, which have been observed to 
cause a variation in statistical results depending on the spatial 
Night-time light imagery can be intuitively perceived to be arrangement of zones or the scale used to analyse the data. 
indicative of a range of socio-economic parameters. Socio- These are known as scale and zoning effects. The scale effect 
economic data are collected at irregular spatial units. Night- occurs when different results are observed from the same data 
time light imagery potentially offers a means to disaggregate at different spatial resolutions (Wrigley et al, 1996). This 
these data to a constant spatial resolution. Parameters such as arises due to the aggregation of data into larger units (e.g. 
human population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), power enumeration districts — wards — counties — regions). In addition 
consumption and even greenhouse gas emissions all have to this, different results can also be produced where the scale 
strong correlations with lit-area and/or total radiance (Elvidge ^ of analysis remains constant but constituent areas are 
et al., 1997; 1999; 2000; Doll et al., 2000). Previous work used aggregated in a different way or zone boundaries are altered. 
country level aggregations of light and GDP to build a global These two issues are particularly pertinent in this analysis 
relationship. This paper investigates the characteristics of sub- since the relationships derived from the data will be used as an 
national relationships and discusses the implications for input to the map production procedure. 
producing disaggregated maps of these parameters. The main 
body of results pertaining to both the relationships and maps A practical application of using the zoning effect can be seen 
are presented in an expanded paper submitted to Ecological as far back as the early 19" century, where it was observed 
Economics (Doll et al., 2004). that voting districts could be divided in such a way so as to 
concentrate the power of the ruling party. This occasionally 
gave rise to bizarrely shaped districts epitomised by that of a 
former governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, whose 
party created a salamander shaped district in 1812. The term 
gerrymander was coined to describe the elected member from 
such a district as well as the action of altering district 
1.1 Issues surrounding multi-scale analysis of night-time 
light data. 
The use of multi-scale data introduces issues, which ought to 
be taken into consideration when results are analysed. In : : 
particular the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) boundaries to gain an electoral advantage. 
(Openshaw, 1984) and the ecological fallacy (Cao and Lam, 
1997) are two complementary themes which frequently occur 
in GIS analysis, but are usually overlooked due to the lack of 
general robust solution. The MAUP consists of two separate 
The MAUP has only been intermittently studied. It was 
identified by Gehlke and Biehl (1934 cited in Openshaw, 
1984) and was again revisited in 1984 by Stan Openshaw. 
  
* Corresponding author. 
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