• english 
    • español
    • english
    • português (brasil)
  • Login
    • español
    • english
    • português (brasil)
View Item 
  •   Scioteca Home
  • 06. Documentos de trabajo
  • 6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica
  • View Item
  •   Scioteca Home
  • 06. Documentos de trabajo
  • 6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Browse

All of Scioteca

Communities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsCountry / Region

This Collection

By Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsCountry / Region

Profiles

Our authors

My Account

LoginRegister

Measuring the size and growth of cities using nighttime light

Abstract
This paper uses high-resolution images of nighttime luminosity to estimate a globally comparable measure of the size of metropolitan areas around the world for the years 2000 and 2010. We apply recently-proposed methodologies that correct the known problems of available nighttime luminosity data including blurring, instability of lit pixels overtime and the reduced comparability of night light images across satellites and across time. We then develop a protocol that isolates stable nighttime light pixels that constitute urban footprint, including low luminosity urban settlements such as slums, and excluding confounding phenomena such as highway illumination. When analyzed together with existing geo-referenced population datasets, our measure of urban footprint, can be used to compute city densities for the entire world. After characterizing some basic stylized facts regarding the distribution of urban sprawl, urban population and population density across world regions, we offer an application of our measure to the study of the size distribution of cities, including test of the Zipf's Law and Gibrat's Law.
Subject
Ciudades | Desarrollo | Desarrollo urbano | Economía | Políticas públicas
 
Country / Region
América Latina y el Caribe
URI
http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/1279
Date
2018-09-20
Cite this publication
Belongs to collection
  • 6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica
Thumbnail
View/Open
Measuring the size and growth of cities using nighttime light (3.193Mb)
Author
Ch, R.
Martin, D.
Vargas, J.
Show full item record

Items Relacionados

Thumbnail
Determinants of Slum Formation: The Role of Local Politics and Policies

One-third of the developing world’s population lives in urban slums and the absolute number of slum residents grew from 650 million in 1990 to 863 million ...

Thumbnail
Jobs’ amenability is not enough: The role of household inputs for safe work under social distancing in Latin American cities

The recent literature has emphasized the role of occupations in quantifying the amount of telework possible under social distancing measures during the ...

Thumbnail
The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employment in Brazil

During the economic boom of the early 2000s, most Latin American countries increased their minimum wages. In Brazil, the real minimum wage increased by ...

  • access

    • shareholders' assembly
    • board of directors
    • customers
    • officials
  • employment

    • our people and values
    • corporate internship program
    • professional development program
    • register your resumee
    • current opportunities
    • employment faq
    • ex-post consulting
  • contact us

    • prevention of asset laundering
    • ethics committee
    • contact us
  • in this website

    • knowledge
    • events
    • log
    • news
    • calls
    • terms and conditions
    • site map
  • other websites

    • geosur
    • centro de información y documentación