Spatial Features of Urban Expansion in Vietnam Based on Long-Term Nighttime Lights Data

Keyang Zhou, Yutian Liang, Chen Zhong, Jiaqi Zeng and Zhengke Zhou
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Keyang Zhou: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Yutian Liang: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Chen Zhong: The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London (UCL), London WC1E 6BT, UK
Jiaqi Zeng: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Zhengke Zhou: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: As a developing country, Vietnam has experienced rapid economic development since the 21st century. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to understand its spatial pattern of urban expansion. However, the key challenge in this endeavor lies in the lack of national accounting data for the sub-administrative divisions of Vietnam at the national level, especially longitudinal data over a long time series. The nighttime lights (NTL) data can objectively reflect the scope and intensity of human development and construction in urban built-up areas, which can effectively support the empirical analysis of the urban expansion process in Vietnam. This paper uses the intercalibration model to correct and fit the long time series of DMSP/OLS and VIIRS/NPP NTL data. Based on this, the data for the urban built areas of Vietnam from 2000 to 2018 are further extracted. The results are as follows. (1) The main urban expansion in Vietnam is concentrated in the southern Mekong Delta and the northern Red River Delta, represented by Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi City, respectively. (2) Vietnam’s urban NTL has significant high–high clustering characteristics in the north-south delta regions. The main urban expansion hotspots were concentrated around Ho Chi Minh City before 2012, the northern region represented by Hanoi City was gradually transformed into a critical area that gathering urban expansion hotspots after 2012. (3) The cities with significant influence and high coupling degree of industrialization and globalization on the urbanization of Vietnam are concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and some northern delta provinces, showing that the impact of industrialization and globalization on urbanization in Vietnam is still limited to some regions. In addition, the results show that the size of the population and the level of industrialization are the main drivers of urban expansion in Vietnam, while the level of foreign investment shows little significance. The results are helpful for promoting the application of long time series NTL data in urban expansion and for further analyzing the urban pattern changes in Vietnam and the influencing factors behind them.

Keywords: nighttime lights (NTL); urban expansion; Vietnam; Southeast Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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