ESTIMATING INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE CHANGES IN CHINA USING DMSP – OLS NIGHT-TIME LIGHT DATA DURING 1999–2012

Abstract. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) night-time light imagery has been proved to be a powerful tool to monitor economic development with its relatively high spatial resolution at large scales. Night-time lights caused by human activities derived from DMSP-OLS satellite imagery are widely used in socioeconomic parameter estimations and urbanization monitoring. In this paper, DMSP-OLS night-time stable light data from 1999 to 2012 are utilized to analyze inter-annual variation in GDP of per unit light intensity (R_GDP) in China. Furthermore, R_GDP was compared with statistical data of the tertiary industry structure for 28 provincial regions. The results show that the provincial R_GDP decreased abruptly in 2001–2002, 2008–2009 and 2011–2012, which is consistent with the proportional growth of the tertiary industry in GDP. These results indicate that the changes in R_GDP can reflect tertiary industry structural changes in China's province-level regions.