Economy
The Economic Data Hidden in Nighttime Views of City Lights
Getting satellite luminosity data right could help us better understand what works and what doesn't in urban development.
Looking at aerial images of nighttime lights can tell us a surprising amount about human activity on the ground. Satellite images of the world at night have been used to see how North Korea's political isolation has left its residents in the dark, and how Texas's booming oil industry has spread across the landscape. As Yale University economist William Nordhaus has noted, roughly 3,000 studies have used nighttime lights as a proxy for various economic activities just since 2000.
There is no doubt that satellite images have many uses, but can they also help measure the economic activity of cities and regions?