Can nighttime light proxy comprehensive economic well-being? Evidence from China

IF 13.3 1区工程技术 Q1 CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Sustainable Cities and Society Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-29 DOI:10.1016/j.scs.2026.107191

Wei Jiang , Jie Liu , Tengfei Long , Ming Liu , Akiyuki Kawasaki , Zhiguo Pang , Denghua Yan , Yizi Shang , Elhadi Adam , Xiaohui Ding , Shiai Cui

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although nighttime light data offer the potential for spatially measuring economic well-being (EWB) to achieve sustainable development goals, empirical validation remains insufficient. Fusion EWB of six representative Chinese counties (Yanshou, Bazhou, Yugan, Yongsheng, Wafangdian, Raoping) was analyzed using household surveys, statistical yearbooks, and entropy weight methodology—approaches that have proven more reliable than equal weight approaches for EWB calculation. The results revealed that (1) significant spatial heterogeneity exists between subjective and objective EWB across townships, demonstrating the necessity of fusion approaches; and (2) strong correlations exist between nighttime light and EWB—objective EWB (R²=0.801, p<0.001) and fusion EWB (R²=0.808, p<0.001)—validating nighttime light as an effective proxy indicator. This study first proposes and validates the fusion EWB concept, addressing the limitations of single-dimensional assessments while establishing the utility of nighttime light for EWB measurement. The methodology provides a scalable framework for spatial EWB simulation and sustainable poverty reduction assessment, offering crucial implications for sustainable urban–rural development planning and SDG monitoring in developing regions.

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夜间灯光能代表综合经济福利吗？来自中国的证据

尽管夜间灯光数据为实现可持续发展目标提供了空间测量经济福祉（EWB）的潜力，但经验验证仍然不足。采用入户调查、统计年鉴和熵权法对中国六个具有代表性的县（延寿、霸州、余干、永胜、瓦房店、饶平）的融合EWB进行了分析，这些方法已被证明比等权法更可靠。结果表明：(1)主客观EWB存在显著的空间异质性，表明融合方法的必要性；(2)夜间灯光与EWB -客观EWB （R²=0.801,p<0.001）和融合EWB （R²=0.808,p<0.001）之间存在较强的相关性，验证了夜间灯光是有效的代理指标。本研究首次提出并验证了融合EWB概念，解决了单维评估的局限性，同时建立了夜间灯光对EWB测量的效用。该方法为空间EWB模拟和可持续减贫评估提供了可扩展的框架，对发展中地区的可持续城乡发展规划和可持续发展目标监测具有重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Sustainable Cities and Society Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

22.00

自引率

13.70%

发文量

810

审稿时长

27 days

期刊介绍： Sustainable Cities and Society (SCS) is an international journal that focuses on fundamental and applied research to promote environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities. The journal welcomes cross-cutting, multi-disciplinary research in various areas, including: 1. Smart cities and resilient environments; 2. Alternative/clean energy sources, energy distribution, distributed energy generation, and energy demand reduction/management; 3. Monitoring and improving air quality in built environment and cities (e.g., healthy built environment and air quality management); 4. Energy efficient, low/zero carbon, and green buildings/communities; 5. Climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban environments; 6. Green infrastructure and BMPs; 7. Environmental Footprint accounting and management; 8. Urban agriculture and forestry; 9. ICT, smart grid and intelligent infrastructure; 10. Urban design/planning, regulations, legislation, certification, economics, and policy; 11. Social aspects, impacts and resiliency of cities; 12. Behavior monitoring, analysis and change within urban communities; 13. Health monitoring and improvement; 14. Nexus issues related to sustainable cities and societies; 15. Smart city governance; 16. Decision Support Systems for trade-off and uncertainty analysis for improved management of cities and society; 17. Big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence applications and case studies; 18. Critical infrastructure protection, including security, privacy, forensics, and reliability issues of cyber-physical systems. 19. Water footprint reduction and urban water distribution, harvesting, treatment, reuse and management; 20. Waste reduction and recycling; 21. Wastewater collection, treatment and recycling; 22. Smart, clean and healthy transportation systems and infrastructure;