Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Geography
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apgeog

Nighttime light satellite images reveal uneven socioeconomic development

along China’s land border
Nan Wan a, b, Yunyan Du a, b, *, Fuyuan Liang c, Jiawei Yi a, b, Jiale Qian a, b, Wenna Tu a, b,
Sheng Huang a, b
a
State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China
b
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, College of Resource and Environment, Beijing, 100049, China
c
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Geographic Information Sciences, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, 61455, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: J Peng China shares its board with one developed and thirteen developing countries. A timely, precise, and efficient
socioeconomic study of border regions is vital for evaluating political problems and identifying potential eco­
Keywords: nomic prospects. Usually, conventional socioeconomic statistical data suffer from significant time lags and un­
Land border equal statistical scales. This study utilized the random forest model to establish a connection between satellite-
Nighttime light data
derived nighttime light data and the improved human development index (IHDI). The relationship was then
Socioeconomic development
applied to predict the IHDI, and differences in its strength, trend, and change pattern by bordering statistical
Change pattern
Driving factors units from 2000 to 2020 were evaluated. Our findings indicate that China’s administrative units (AUCs) are more
developed and have a greater development trend than their neighbors (AUNs). Except for the Tibet Autonomous
Region, all AUCs are spatially more developed than AUNs, with the discrepancy widening between 2000 and
2020. Socioeconomic changes in AUCs predominantly exhibit a forward-leaping development pattern, which
may be represented by a logarithmic (53%) or sigmoid (22.6%) function, whereas AUNs’ socioeconomic changes
exhibit either a late-leaping exponential (34.2%) or static development (18.6%) trend. The IHDI values in AUCs
exhibit greater disparity as measured by the Theil index, than the AUNs, primarily due to the natural environ­
ment, resource availability, and development policies. In less developed regions, harsh natural surroundings,
temperatures, and scarce natural resources hinder socioeconomic growth.

1. Introduction
China has the longest land border in the world, measuring 22,116 km
and bordering fourteen countries. Along China’s land border, the so­
cioeconomic growth of domestic and foreign regions varies significantly.
In contrast to the rapid socioeconomic development of China’s border
regions since the turn of the century, most foreign regions along the land
border have had slower growth (Cheng et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2018;
Tsend, 2019). This unbalanced development pattern may greatly hinder
the synergistic socio-economic development of some border areas.
Therefore, understanding the distinction at fine spatial and temporal
scale is crucial for diplomatic relations, border security, commodity
trading, tourism activities, and other activities of the countries involved
(Shukla & Parikh, 1992; Paasi & Prokkola, 2008), given that a nation’s
border is a critical zone and the strategic frontier of its territory (Bru­
net-Jailly, 2005; T. Song et al., 2017).
Household surveys are currently the most trustworthy source of so­
cioeconomic status data (Elbers et al., 2003), while being costly and
time-consuming to collect (World Bank, 2015). Unfortunately, the most
reliable socioeconomic disparity data is only accessible to wealthy na­
tions. Many developing nations in Asia and Africa cannot afford
household surveys due to their high cost (X. Chen & Nordhaus, 2011). In
addition, authorities normally collect household survey data every few
years, and it takes time to interpret the raw survey counts, which makes
it almost impossible to update socioeconomic development status
promptly. Most countries bordering China are developing countries and
collect household survey data slowly and mainly for parts of their ter­
ritory (Devarajan, 2013; Ravallion, 2003). Inadequate socioeconomic

* Corresponding author. State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS,
Beijing, 100101, China.
E-mail addresses: wangnan171@mails.ucas.edu.cn (N. Wan), duyy@lreis.ac.cn (Y. Du), F-Liang@wiu.edu (F. Liang), yijw@lreis.ac.cn (J. Yi), qianjl@lreis.ac.cn
(J. Qian), tuwn@lreis.ac.cn (W. Tu), huangs.20b@igsnrr.ac.cn (S. Huang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102899
Received 23 April 2022; Received in revised form 1 February 2023; Accepted 10 February 2023
Available online 15 February 2023
0143-6228/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Wan et al.
survey data in these regions makes evaluating the development
inequality challenges. Comparatively, China has readily accessible
census numbers that are more comprehensive and of higher quality, and
numerous studies have been conducted in China’s border regions. For
instance, scholars have analyzed and compared the urbanization status,
trends, and factors using statistical data (Liu et al., 2018; T. Song et al.,
2017; Hu et al., 2018 Z. Song & Zhu, 2020b). However, despite broad
interest in analyzing the disparities in development along China’s border
at a fine scale, reliable approaches remain contentious.
A variety of spatial data have also been used to explore the devel­
opment of underdeveloped areas (Bennett & Smith, 2017; Levin et al.,
2020; Zhu et al., 2019). Among them, global nighttime light (NTL)
satellite data have been widely used as a proxy of human activities
(Croft, 1978; Elvidge et al., 1999; L.Imhoff et al., 1997; Small et al.,
2011), especially in underdeveloped regions lacking quality socioeco­
nomic statistics. Previous studies have shown variations in NTL intensity
well mimic the spatiotemporal changes of human activities (Levin &
Duke, 2012; Ma et al., 2015) and exhibit a strong correlation with
numerous key socioeconomic variables, such as GDP (Doll et al., 2006;
G. Li & Fang, 2014; Wu et al., 2013), poverty (Jean et al., 2016; Pokh­
riyal & Jacques, 2017; Wang et al., 2012), disaster impacts (Brock, 2019;
Fusilli et al., 2014; Khan et al., 2020), population density (Amaral et al.,
2005; X. Li & Zhou, 2018), and international economic and trading
activities (Henderson et al., 2016). NTL also provides global coverage
with a relatively high spatial and temporal resolution; hence, it has been
extensively utilized to investigate socioeconomic development in re­
gions or nations that lack relevant statistics(Mirza et al., 2021).
In addition to gathering datasets with high spatiotemporal precision,
it is vital to employ uniform measuring standards and characterization
indicators to depict disparities and imbalances in regional development.
Many indices have been proposed and applied to measure the level of
socioeconomic development of different regions. Among these indices,
the Human Development Index (HDI) has been shown to outperform
several more recent indices as a general national-level index and has
become a prominent technique for measuring human welfare due to its
extended covering time (1990 to the present) and a large number of
nations included (191 countries)(Comim & Hirai, 2022; Sanusi, 2008).
The HDI has been utilized by developing nations as a reference in
formulating their development policies for decades. However, as times
advance, the world has higher spatiotemporal-level requirements for
socioeconomic development assessment, highlighting the limitations of
HDI’s existing application. Due to many developing countries’ lacking of
multidimensional socioeconomic statistics, the HDI system contains
only a relatively small number of indicators (GDP per capita, life ex­
pectancy, adult literacy rate, and comprehensive school attendance
rate), making it challenging to reflect the region’s socioeconomic
development levels comprehensively(Klugman et al., 2011). In addition,
regional-scale socioeconomic statistics are scarce in most developing
countries, particularly for continuous time series(X. Chen & Nordhaus,
2011; McCallum et al., 2022; Sala-i-Martin, 2006). Consequently, HDI
was rarely used to compare socioeconomic development levels at a
regional scale(Sanusi, 2008). Furthermore, statistical criteria may vary
substantially from country to country. The issues above necessitate the
development of more effective methodologies for comparing regional
socioeconomic levels across nations.
It is well known that remote sensing variables have a high correlation
or multi-collinearity. Although it has been demonstrated that NTL sta­
tistics are highly connected with the regional socioeconomic develop­
ment index, a precise understanding of their relationships still needs to
be improved. Therefore, a method that is objective, reasonable, and
replicable is required to perceive socioeconomic development levels
based on NTL data. During the past decade, machine learning techniques
based on statistics have achieved impressive results in data prediction
and variable evaluation across various fields and have grown in popu­
larity. Among them, Random Forest (RF) is becoming increasingly
popular in nonlinear regression studies(Breiman, 2001). It can manage
2
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
high-dimensional data and explore multilevel interactions and nonlinear
associations. Consequently, experts in the field of socioeconomic
development predictions are paying increasing attention to the RF
method(Hu et al., 2019; G. Li et al., 2019; J. Xu et al., 2021).
The study of socioeconomic development on both sides of the border
will provide insights into the socioeconomic dynamics and spatial pat­
terns of China’s border areas and draw certain conclusions about the
development situation and outlook on both sides of the border. How­
ever, due to data and methodological constraints, few studies quanti­
tatively examine the spatiotemporal pattern of socioeconomic
development on both sides of China’s border and investigate the dis­
parities in driving forces influencing their development. Therefore, new
methodologies and datasets are urgently required to address these dif­
ficulties. In this study, utilizing the NTL dataset, we developed a novel
method for assessing IHDI intensity, trends, and variation patterns along
China’s land border from 2000 to 2020. This study aims to reveal the
temporal and spatial changes of the imbalanced socioeconomic devel­
opment along the land border of China. We also analyzed the socio­
economic development differences between China and its neighboring
countries and the reasons that could explain these differences. Given the
rapid development of new data sources and technology, the study’s
findings will offer the government a solid platform for establishing sci­
entific and reasonable border region development strategies, as well as
innovative ideas for monitoring the progress of border regions.
2. Study area and datasets
2.1. Study area
This study investigates the NTL of 296 county-level administrative
units of nine provinces in China (AUCs) and 602 administrative units of
14 neighboring nations of China (AUNs). To undertake a regional
analysis of the study area, the Chinese region was separated according to
the zoning plan (Southwest, Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and
Northeast) of China’s border regions as described in prior Chinese
literature (Z. Song & Zhu, 2020b). The administrative units were then
divided into five groupings based on their physical location regarding to
China: Southwest, Tibet, West, North, and Northeast (Fig. 1,Table 1).
2.2. Datasets
2.2.1. Nighttime light (NTL) satellite data
We used the global extended NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light time-
series (2000–2020) dataset that was collected by the Suomi National
Polar Orbit Partner Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-
VIIRS) and produced by Chen et al. (2021). At the pixel level, the
dataset’s R2 and RMSE are 0.87 and 2.96, respectively, while at the city
level, they are 0.95 and 3024.62. This dataset’s full description is
available at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YGIVCD(Z. Chen et al.,
2021).
2.2.2. Administrative unit boundaries
We obtained the boundaries of the administrative units from the
Resource and Environment Data Center of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences and the Global Administrative Areas Database (GADM), which
provides the national, municipal, and district administrative boundaries
and locations worldwide (https://gadm.org/data.html). In this study,
we used county-level administrative boundary data.
2.2.3. Other datasets
We also obtained the socioeconomic statistics data (ie.census statis­
tics, social security, economic development and other indicator statis­
tics) from China County Statistical Yearbook of 2000 and 2010 census.
We used these dataset to calculate the “Improved Human Development
Index” (IHDI) for the county-level administrative units in China. Other
spatial data we obtained for this study include elevation, temperature,
N. Wan et al. Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

Fig. 1. Overview map showing the AUCs and AUNs of the study area. Labels in different color fonts represent different regions (blue: SW; orange: SWT; purple: W;
green: N; red: NE).

Table 1 Table 2
Regional divisions of the AUCs and AUNs. Ancillary spatial data used in this study.
Region AUCs-Provinces AUNs-Countries Datasets Description Sources

Southwest Yunnan, Guangxi Vietnam (VNM), Myanmar (MMR), Laos Elevation The Shuttle Radar Topography http://srtm.csi.cgiar.
(SW) (LAO) Mission (SRTM) digital elevation org
Southwest- Tibet India (IND), Nepal (NPL), Bhutan (BTN) models (DEM) with 90 m
Tibet (SWT) resolution
West (W) Xinjiang Afghanistan (AFG), Pakistan (PAK), The Temperature and WorldClim version 2 dataset with http://www.worldcl
Republic of Tajikistan (TJK), Kyrgyz precipitation a spatial resolution of 2.5 min im.org
Republic (KRZ), The Republic of (Annual Mean Temperature,
Kazakhstan (KAZ) Annual Precipitation)
North (N) Inner Mongolia, Mongolia (MNG) Population Landscan ambient population http://landscan.ornl.
Gansu density at a grid resolution of 1 gov/
Northeast (NE) Heilongjiang, Jilin, Russia (RUS), Democratic People’s km × 1 km
Liaoning Republic of Korea (PRK) Average ratio of crop Climate Change Initiative Land http://maps.elie.ucl.
land to urban land Cover (CCI-LC) data of the ac.be/CCI/viewer/
European Space Agency (ESA) download.php
precipitation, population density, travel time to cities, travel time to Average travel time The global accessibility map https://www.map.ox.
healthcare facilities, the ratio of agricultural to urban land (Table 2). to cities enumerating travel time to the ac.uk/accessibility_t
closest city for all areas between o_cities/
60◦ south and 85◦ north latitude.
3. Methods Average travel time The global map of optimal travel https://doi.org/10.
to healthcare time to a hospital or clinic at 1 km 1038/s41591-020-10
The technique framework for achieving the aims of this paper’s facilities resolution. 59-1
research has four crucial components. First, we established the evalua­
tion system of IHDI, including the selected indicators and their weights 3.1. The improved human development index (IHDI)
(Section 3.1); Next, we determined the nonlinear fitting relationship
between nighttime lighting dataset characteristics and IHDI values The level of regional socioeconomic development reflects a multi­
based on Random Forest modeling, and applied it to calculate IHDI dimensional capacity for comprehensiveness, and the use of socioeco­
values for each administrative unit in the border area in the continuous nomic statistics to analyze socioeconomic growth has been widely
time series from 2000 to 2020 (Section 3.2); after that, we used DTW recognized by scholars and practitioners(Milenkovic et al., 2014;
time series clustering, Thiel index, and other methods to analyze the Pokhriyal & Jacques, 2017; Yu et al., 2015). This study proposes the
pattern of IHDI changes and its regional differences on both sides of the IHDI to reflect the socioeconomic development of county-level admin­
borderline (Section 3.3-3.4); finally, the geographically weighted istrative units of AUCs and AUNs to address the issue that HDI in
regression model was used to investigate the driving forces behind the traditional studies is not adapted to the measurement of the socioeco­
differences in IHDI spatial distribution (Section 3.5). nomic capacity of regional or smaller-scale administrative units (as
stated in the introduction section). Here, we used a multidimensional
socioeconomic development index based on statistical data to quantify

3
N. Wan et al. Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

socioeconomic development using IHDI in various regions. According to According to the entropy theory, the lower the degree of system disor­
previous research and the socioeconomic condition of the research area der, the smaller the entropy value. According to the amount of infor­
(Puttanapong et al., 2022; Shi et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2015), we selected mation, the entropy method can determine the weight of each index.
twelve socioeconomic variables (Table 3), which include the develop­ Finally, the multicollinearity test was performed using the variance
ment in urbanization, economy, and society dimensions, were deemed inflation factor (VIF) method(Song & Zhu, 2020b), and the test results
to be mature indicators of the level of development and used to construct showed that the VIF results of all indicators were <4 (Table 3), which
the IHDI. means the selected indicators were no multicollinearity problem. These
Compared with the original HDI calculation system, our socioeco­ indicators can be included in the system to assess units’ socioeconomic
nomic assessment method has been enhanced and augmented in three development levels.
ways to meet the research objectives: First, we have added the urbani­ The unit IHDI was calculated using the following Eq. (1):
zation development dimension, measured by the ratio of the regional ∑
urban population to the total population. Numerous studies have found IHDIi = Iij ∗ Wj (1)
j
that the positive correlation between urbanization and many important
dimensions of regions’ socioeconomic development has also become where IHDIi is the IHDI value of the unit i, Iij is the j-th indicator value for
increasingly clear, with populations living in urban areas tending to unit i, and Wj is the weight of the j-th indicator.
have higher levels of health and education security and easier access to Considering the difficulty of obtaining fine-scale statistics in China’s
essential services such as water or electricity(Giles-Corti et al., 2016; border developing countries., we selected the 2096 county-level units
Pandey et al., 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). Second, we have broadened the with a complete list of indicators across China in this study and calcu­
scope of the indicators used to evaluate the degree of regional socio­ lated their IHDI values using the 2000 and 2010 socioeconomic statistics
economic development. In addition to GDP per capita, we assessed the (Fig. A1). These selected units have different geographical and climatic
degree of economic development based on the level of regional indus­ environments. In addition, they possess different levels of socioeco­
trial development (added value of secondary production per capita and nomic development.
industrial production value per capita above the scale) and the level of
residents’ income (income per capita, disposable income per capita).
Thirdly, we enhanced the evaluation of the assessment dimension for 3.2. Prediction model
social development. The education dimension includes the levels of
educational resources (schools, teachers) per capita, which reflects The relationship between nighttime lighting characteristics and
residents’ access to educational resources; the medical health dimension regional socio-economic development levels is non-linear, complex and
includes the number of beds per capita and the number of healthcare difficult to describe accurately. In this study, we established the corre­
workers per capita, which reflects residents’ access to health care lation between the NTL dataset and IHDI by applying a random forest
resources. model using the statistical properties of the NTL data for each admin­
In addition to the optimization in indicator selection, we also istrative unit. Random Forest (RF) model, a popular integrated machine
adjusted the method of assigning indicator weights. Unlike the original learning method, was chosen to fit the relationship between the two
HDI assessment system, which assigned the same weight to each indi­ variables because it has been demonstrated to be a reliable and robust
cator, we assigned weights according to the data distribution and model with high prediction ability and computation efficiency as
importance of the indicators. We awarded each dimension the same compared to many other modern algorithms in a number of interna­
weight. We assigned the weights to the individual variation within each tional studies (Breiman, 2001). It can handle the complex relationships
dimension using the entropy weighting method(Cui et al., 2018). We between predictors and is robust to noise (Arpaci et al., 2014;
initially normalized each variable based on its value range. Then, the Delgado-Baquerizo et al., 2017; Song & Zhu, 2020b). Based on a com­
entropy of each variable is calculated according to its definition, and the bination of related research(G. Li et al., 2019; J. Xu et al., 2021), we
coefficients of variation are continuously calculated. In the end, we selected eight NTL statistical characteristics for each administrative unit
determined the weight of each indicator using a hybrid model. regarding nighttime lighting data as the training features for the training
process. Each unit’s training features and descriptions used by Random
Table 3 Forest model are listed in Table 4. The measured-IHDI samples are
The variables and their weights that were used to calculate the IHDI. separated into two parts, the training dataset (80%), and the testing
dataset (20%), by way of random sampling without replacement. We
Dimension Classes Indicators Weights VIF
employed the grid search approach to optimize the parameters n esti­
urban Urban Urbanization rate 0.333 1.54 mators, max features, depth, and min sample leaves to increase the
development
model’s accuracy during the training process. Model prediction perfor­
Economic Regional GDP per capita 0.124 2.82
development economy mance was evaluated by the coefficient of determination (R2) and root
Industrial Per capita added value 0.06 3.37 mean squared error (RMSE) through the testing dataset.
Development of secondary industry Lastly, the trained model was applied to predict (We use the term
and tertiary industry
Per capita industrial 0.035 2.41
production value above Table 4
designated size The feature sets that were used to train the Random Forest models.
Human quality Per capita net income 0.063 2.02
Training Feature Description
of life Per capita disposable 0.051 2.18
Datasets
income
Social Education Adult literacy rate 0.133 1.25 FS1 The sum of NTL DN values in each unit
development Average years of 0.101 1.37 FS2 The mean of NTL DN values in each unit
education FS3 The proportion of areas where the NTL DN value is greater
per student education 0.099 2.06 than 0
institutions FS4 The range of NTL DN values in each unit
Medical health Per capital number of 0.082 1.57 FS5 Standard deviation of NTL DN values in each research unit
beds in medical and FS6 The Maximum value of NTL DN values in each research
health institutions unit
Per capital doctors 0.136 1.65 FS7 The medium value of NTL DN values in each unit
Life expectancy 0.115 1.87 FS8 The mean value of pixels with NTL DN value greater than 0

4
N. Wan et al.
“prediction” to refer to estimates of IHDI values that are not directly
observed) the IHDI value of each county-level administrative unit in the
study area between 2000 and 2020. “RandomForest” in python’s sklearn
package (version 0.24.1) is used to implement the RandomForest algo­
rithm. In summary, Fig. 2 illustrates the flow chart for the acquisition of
IHDI values for consecutive years (2000–2020) in the study area.
3.3. Modeling IHDI development patterns
3.3.1. IHDI pattern clustering
We measured the similarity of the IHDI series of different units and
obtained the clustering pattern of the socio-economic development in
the study area through the clustering method. We first standardized the
IHDI time series of each administrative unit using the method of zero-
mean normalization. If there is an offset between the two-time series,
the traditional time series distance calculation method will cause a slight
time deviation, resulting in a huge difference in its feature difference
space. Consequently, the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm
(Kassidas et al., 1998; Ramaker et al., 2003) was applied to quantify the
similarities of the standardized IHDI time series based on the distance
between the two time series in this study. The DTW distance refers to the
length of the best alignment (i.e., warped path) between two given time
series. The larger the DTW distance, the more significant difference
between the two time series.
We then used the Kmeans++ method (Hartigan & Wong, 2013) to
cluster the administrative units based on the similarity distance of their
IHDI time series. The clustering was implemented using the sklearn
package of python 3.7 and we clustered the administrative units into
seven groups according to the Silhouette coefficients(Rousseeuw, 1987).
Fig. 2. A flow chart showing the IHDI modeling and predicting process.
5
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
3.3.2. Fitted IHDI clustering pattern
In this study, we associated the clustered IHDI time series with either
linear, logarithmic, exponential, or sigmoid development modes (Ju
et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2020). The linear mode is characterized by
continuous growth related to the level of regional socioeconomic
development. The exponential model is characterized by slow growth in
the early stage and accelerated growth in the later stage. The logarith­
mic function shows that a region experiences rapid growth before the
growth reaches a development plateau. The last development mode, the
sigmoid function, represents slow growth in the early and later stages
and fast growth in between. We used the “Curve Fitting” tool in Matlab
to identify the development mode for the clustering results derived from
the 2000–2020 IHDI time series. In addition, the coefficients of deter­
mination (R2), a standard F-test (p-value), and the root mean square error
(RMSE) were applied to identify the best-fitting function.
3.4. Theil’s index for IHDI regional inequality
Theil’s index provides a quantitative measure for the inequality of
IHDI levels at different temporal scales, which is easy to decompose. A
higher Theil’s index corresponds to greater inequality(Chen, Zhang,
et al., 2019; Xu, 2020). We used the Theil Index (Dong & Hao, 2018;
Miśkiewicz, 2008; Shorrocks, 1980) to quantify the socioeconomic
development imbalance expressed by IHDI values among different AUCs
and AUNs regions. This index is calculated as Eq. (2).
( )
1∑ n
yi yi
T= log (2)
n i=1 y y
where yi and y are the IHDI value of region i and the average IHDI value
in the study area, respectively. N is the total number of administrative
units in the study area.
We further decomposed the Theil Index to examine the regional and
internal contribution rates to the overall imbalance based on the
connotation of the Thiel index. Details of the decomposition process of
the Thiel index can be found in the Appendix.
3.5. Driving factors analysis: geographically weighted regression
Our study covers a wide area with complex influencing factors and
significant spatial heterogeneity. The traditional analysis of global linear
regression models is based on least squares (OLS) models, which assume
uniform relationships between IHDI and each explanatory variable. As a
result, local or regional variations in regression model coefficients and
goodness-of-fit are not explored. Geographically weighted regression
(GWR) is a technique that incorporates a spatial weighting function,
combines geographic and attribute information, and obtains location-
specific results (Fotheringham et al., 2002). Instead of predicting
global values for regression coefficients, GWR permits these coefficients
and model goodness-of-fit to be generated for each unit separately in the
study area, representing the spatial non-smoothness of distinct spatial
characteristics and enhancing the accuracy of the results. Consequently,
we conducted geographically weighted regression using the “GWmodel”
package in R version 4.0.3(Gollini et al., 2015) with eight explanatory
variables to evaluate the various natural and socioeconomic factors that
influence regional IHDI values, which incorporates the spatial charac­
teristics of the data into the regression model(J. Chen et al., 2018; Lu
et al., 2014). The technical details of GWR are described in Appendix A.
4. Results
4.1. Evaluation of the estimated IHDI
The random forest model trained with NTL features performed well,
with cross-validated forecasts explaining 72.5% of the overall variation
in these results. The random forest model was further evaluated using
N. Wan et al.
the testing dataset, yielding an R2 of 0.82 and an RMSE of 0.03. The
Pearson correlation coefficient between the model-predicted and the
obtained IHDI values is 0.85 (Fig. 3a), indicating the trained Random
Forest model with the selected NTL features is solid in explaining the
explains the IHDI’s variability.
We also used the Random Forest model to predict the IHDI of the
county-level administrative units in 37 Asian countries (Table A1). The
average predicted IHDI values by country were compared against the
2018 National Human Development Index (HDI, 2018) released by The
United Nations Development Programme. The predicted IHDI values
correlate well with the 2018 national HDI dataset, and the Pearson
correlation and Spearman coefficients are 0.82 and 0.81 (Fig. 3b),
respectively. Such findings show that the random forest model con­
structed using the data from China could be applied to the countries in
Asia. Fig. A2 shows the predicted IHDI for the corresponding adminis­
trative units in most Asian countries in 2018.
4.2. Spatiotemporal variations in IHDI
4.2.1. Analysis of the level of IHDI
The IHDI values of AUCs and AUNs exhibit significant spatial het­
erogeneity (Fig. 4). From 2000 to 2020, the annual mean IHDI values
vary between 0.30 and 0.72, with significant differences across our
study area. We categorized the IHDI values into four levels (Very Low,
Low, Moderate, and High) using the natural breaks method (Fig. 4a).
Overall, the IHDI values of the AUCs are substantially greater than those
of the AUNs (0.49 vs. 0.39, T-value: 36.27, p-value<0.05). The AUCs
show higher IHDI values in the North and Northeast of China, but lower
in the Southwest-Tibet (Fig. 4b). Specifically, the IHDI identifies a few
hotspots in Inner Mongolia and Northeastern China, as well as cold spots
in Tibet. In other words, socioeconomic development is more advanced
in the Northern and Eastern AUCs. The southern and western AUCs, in
comparison, is less developed. Such an uneven socioeconomic devel­
opment pattern could be attributed to the constraints of climate and
topography in our study area. The rough topography and alpine condi­
tions of the southern and western AUCs challenge human living and
social development (Chen, Zhang, et al., 2019). In contrast, most AUNs
have lower IHDI values, except those bordering the SWT region. In the
SWT region, the annual average IHDI for AUNs is 0.41, more significant
than in China (0.35). The AUNs around the Russian border had the
highest average IHDI at 0.47, which is still lower than the AUCs in
northeastern China (0.55).
We also show the distribution of units at different IHDI levels in
AUCs and AUNs (Fig. 4c–d). Approximately 51.6% of AUCs in northern
China have IHDI values greater than 0.55. In comparison, 93.8% of
Fig. 3. The model predicted IHDI by administrative units against the survey IHDI (a); The model predicted average value of national county-level IHDI against the
countries’ HDI (b).
6
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
AUNs in the North have Low-level IHDI values. The NE region of AUNs
has the highest IHDI ratio above the Moderate-level, reaching 19.8%.
The significant disparity in IHDI values and levels reveals extraordinary
socioeconomic development levels in AUCs and AUNs, despite their
almost identical geographic locations and climates. This could be
attributed to natural resource availability and development policies.
4.2.2. Analysis of the IHDI trend
The IHDI trends results reveal distinct growth patterns for AUCs and
AUNs (Fig. 5). Overall, the average IHDI of AUCs increased at a rate of
+0.0069 per year from 0.41 in 2000 to 0.55 in 2020 (p-value <0.05),
while the average IHDI of AUNs increases at a rate of +0.0041 from 0.35
in 2000 to 0.43 in 2020 (p-value<0.05). In the long run, the socioeco­
nomic development gap between AUCs and AUNs will expand over time
(Fig. 5b). The growth trends of different administrative units also show
spatial variations across our study area. All AUCs except those in Tibet
Autonomous Region have shown a rapid growth trend, particularly in
Xinjiang province (+0.009) and Inner Mongolia (+0.009). By contrast,
only the AUNs along the central Asian-China border (+0.006) and the
Russia-China border (+0.05) exhibited substantial expansion. The AUNs
along the Mongolia-China border show little change (+0.001) in the
average IHDI from 2000 to 2020 (Fig. 5a).
In addition to the magnitude of the change trend values, AUCs and
AUNs demonstrate significant differences in the temporal patterns of
IHDI growth. The AUCs show an overall forward-leaping development
mode. In contrast, the AUNs show a lagging mode (Fig. 5c). More spe­
cifically, the increase in average IHDI at AUC decreased from 0.1 from
2000 to 2010 to 0.05 after 2010. The difference in the increase over time
proves significant for administrative units of AUCs by T-test (t-value:
22.5, p-value<0.05). By contrast, the average IHDI value of the AUNs
increased from 0.03 in 2000 to 0.05 in 2020, which was similarly sta­
tistically significant (t-value: − 18.9, p-value<0.05). The AUCs and AUNs
in different regions show different development modes. The forward-
leaping mode is mainly found in the AUCs in Northern and North­
eastern China. Those in the SW show a more balanced growth from 2000
to 2020. The AUNs in the N, SWT and SW regions show a lagging
development mode, whereas those in the other regions exhibit a more
balanced development over time.
4.3. Evaluation of the difference and imbalance
4.3.1. Variations of the IHDI across our study area
We split the border of interest into 25 segments, with each about 150
km long, and the IHDI values show a significant difference in the seg­
ments in the north, although there was no significant difference between
N. Wan et al. Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

Fig. 4. Spatial distribution of IHDI values in AUCs and AUNs and its regional statistical analysis; (a) A map showing the mean IHDI values; (b) Comparison of the
AUCs and AUNs IHDI values; Sub-regional IHDI levels statistics of AUCs(c) and AUNs(d).

7
N. Wan et al. Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

Fig. 5. The Mapping of the IHDI growth trends and its regional statistics in the AUCs and AUNs. (a) A map showing the IHDI’s trend; (b) The overall IHDI time series
of the AUCs and the AUNs; (c) The changes of the IHDI values in the AUCs and AUNs.

8
N. Wan et al. Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899

the AUCs and AUNs in the southern segments (Fig. 6a, c). The segments
were further categorized into six quadrants using their IHDI values and
the means. Approximately 80% of the 25 segments are located in the
right quadrants (I, II, V, and VI), indicating that the average IHDI of
AUCs in these segments is much greater than that of AUNs, and these
segments are spatially concentrated around the northern and western
China’s border (Fig. 6a and b). The segments with the most apparent gap
in the VI quadrant between the AUCs and AUNs are mainly found along
the border of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin and Liaoning. In particular,
the 15th segment demonstrates a considerable discrepancy between the
mean IHDI values, indicating a drastic disparity in the development
levels of AUCs and AUNs along the border between northwestern China
and southwest Mongolia. The three segments (2nd-4th) along the border
in Yunnan all fall into the V quadrant, suggesting that although the AUCs
and AUNs here show a relatively low level of socioeconomic develop­
ment, the AUCs have better levels than the AUNs.
We also calculated the average IHDI difference per segment and
Fig. 6c shows the annual changes in the IHDI difference values. The 14th
to 20th segments along the northern land border show the most signif­
icant difference and the gap keeps growing from 2000 to 2020. For
example, the IHDI difference in the 5th segment has increased from 0.07
in 2000 to 0.27 in 2020. Along the 5th and 9th segments, the IHDI
difference values are higher in the AUNs than those in the AUCs over the
period and the gap becomes narrow. More specifically, the average

Fig. 6. The mapping and statistic annual change of the IHDI difference value for each segment. (a) A map showing the segments along the border; (b) The average
IHDI values of the AUCs and AUNs along the segments; (c) Temporal changes of the IHDI difference between the AUCs and AUNs along the segments.

9
N. Wan et al.
difference in the 5th segment increased from − 0.03 to +0.03, and that of
the 9th segment increased from − 0.05 to − 0.01. By contrast, the IHDI
values of the AUCs and AUNs along the 9th and 21st segments do not
differ significantly during the study period.
4.3.2. The imbalanced IHDI
Fig. 7 shows the temporal changes of the Theil index of the AUCs and
AUNs IHDI values, as well as the Theil index contribution rates. From
0.60 in 2000 to 0.09 in 2020, the Theil Index of the AUCs continuously
decreased, showing a decline in regional imbalance. In comparison, the
AUNs’ Theil index gradually rose from 0.21 in 2000 to 0.29 in 2020.
Before 2007, the Theil index of the AUCs was greater than that of the
AUNs, while the opposite is true after 2007. In the early 2000s, the AUCs
in our research area exhibited a profoundly uneven development,
mitigated by the strong growth in the SWT and W regions. In contrast to
the AUCs, the AUNs exhibit an increase in imbalance, and countries such
as Mongolia and North Korea have made no major social or economic
growth, but other regions have exhibited more remarkable social and
economic development (Fig. 7a).
Fig. 7b quantifies the contribution rates to the imbalanced devel­
opment in the AUCs from 2000 to 2020. The contribution rate to
regional inequality increased to 59% in 2012, primarily due to rapid
development in northern and northeastern China in the early 2000s. The
increased inter-region imbalance before 2012 is the main reason for the
IHDI inequality across the AUCs. Since 2012, fast development in other
regions has narrowed the IHDI gap, and the imbalanced contribution
rate between groups has dropped. The AUNs show no significant inter-
region imbalance (<10%) and temporal changes.
4.4. IHDI clustering results analysis
By clustering the patterns of IHDI values over time for each admin­
istrative unit in the study area, we can summarize the development
patterns of socioeconomics in different regions. The AUCs and AUNs
show two exponential, two logarithm, one linear, one sigmoid, and one
stagnant development modes based on the clustering results (Fig. 8). In
general, 50.3% and 23.6% of the AUCs exhibit a logarithmic and sig­
moid development mode, indicating socioeconomic growth expediates
from 2000 to 2010 and then enters a plateau after 2010. Regarding
spatial distribution, the AUCs with the sigmoid and logarithmic devel­
opment modes are mainly found in the N and NE of our study area. In
contrast, the AUCs in the SW and W regions are predominantly char­
acterized by a linear development mode and may show dramatic
Fig. 7. The temporal changes of the Theil index (a) and the contribution change between regions(b).
10
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
development potential in the future. In contrast to other regions, 63.8%
of AUCs in the SWT show exponential growth. Even though the natural
environment severely inhibits economic development in the SWT, the
government’s policy support and assistance are crucial to the rapid
development growth of AUCs in this region.
By contrast, 34.2% and 18.6% of AUNs exhibited exponential and
stagnant development patterns, respectively. The AUNs with stable and
exponential development modes are evenly distributed across our study
area. The stagnating socioeconomic growth of AUCs along the China-
Mongolia and China-North Korea borders has widened the IHDI gap
between AUCs and AUNs. It is worth noting that no dominant devel­
opment mode was identified for AUCs and AUNs in the SWT region,
which may be attributed to the different impacts of internal politics,
culture, topography, climate, and other factors in these administrative
units.
4.5. Exploration of the driving factors
Both natural environmental and socioeconomic factors may have a
significant regional impact on the distribution of IHDI, as determined by
GWR. Fig. 9 illustrates the direction and strength of the relationships of
the factors to the IHDI, as well as their determination coefficients. Out of
all the variables, population density is the factor that can best explain
the variations in the IHDI values. Approximately 70.23% of the units
were significant, with only a few in the NE characterized by no signifi­
cant relationship. In significant units, approximately 90.20% are posi­
tive relationships. The elevation is the most important among the
natural environmental factors, and 68.45% of the units have significant
explanatory relationships. It is an inhibitor of development in most re­
gions, particularly the SWT and W regions. Notably, the harsher envi­
ronment hinders these regions’ social and economic growth.
5. Discussion
5.1. Improvements compared to the previous study
It is necessary to implement effective metrics to assess socioeconomic
development disparities between regions or countries and monitor
progress toward global sustainable development goals. Traditional
methods for measuring regional socioeconomic developments currently
rely on household surveys that are rarely conducted in many parts of the
world, are typically updated slowly, and have limited coverage(Burke
Marshall et al., 2021; Watmough et al., 2019). In the absence of
N. Wan et al.
Fig. 8. Distribution and statistics of IHDI change patterns in different administrative units in the study area. A map showing the changing pattern of IHDI (a);
Statistics of change patterns in different regions (b).
fine-scale socioeconomic statistics in developing countries on a global
scale, our study evaluated the socioeconomic development of the
fine-scale administrative units along China’s border from 2000 to 2020
using NTL data for the first time. It verified the results’ reliability by
comparing the Chinese IHDI with the national-level HDI. We success­
fully obtained the socioeconomic development differences along the
border regarding IHDI level, pattern, and driving factors over the long
term. More importantly, we discovered that these spatiotemporal
characteristics are strongly associated with regional conditions and
national policies, which will significantly impact regional and national
research and policy. As a pioneering and exploratory study, the results
can effectively reflect the development dynamics of the border region.
We hope the ideas inform future researchers and governmental decisions
to promote balanced regional development. This new schema will cause
lower costs in time and money for the government and policymakers in
comparing regional socioeconomic development gaps.
11
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
Our findings and methodology advance the understanding of the
development disparities along the China land border from multiple
vantage points. This study highlights critical concerns in locations where
the distribution of the IHDI is extremely unequal (China-MNG bordering
area and China-PRK bordering area). These findings will spark our
attention and motivate further investigation. To reach a “win-win” sit­
uation in the context of global development, it is necessary to under­
stand the complementing advantages of different nations and to engage
in substantial energy, resource, and good exchanges and collaboration.
In addition to mapping the spatiotemporal IHDI distribution and its
trends at fine scales, we applied clustering techniques to identify the
patterns of IHDI change in various regions. AUC belongs to forward-
leaping development and is dominated by logarithmic or sigmoid
change patterns; However, AUNs generally belongs to backward-leaning
or stagnant development and is dominated by exponential and stagnant
change patterns. The discovery can assist us in determining the
N. Wan et al.
Fig. 9. The GWR-derived coefficients of the drivers on the IHDI distribution.
socioeconomic development trajectories of various regions and formu­
lating targeted strategies.
5.2. Potential factors influencing IHDI spatiotemporal characteristics
The border areas are typically distant from the regional economic
center and experience more significant disadvantages in transport,
infrastructure, and educational, social, and financial capital-related
opportunities. In addition, receiving the active radiation effect and
less public attention is difficult. Motivated by the sustainable develop­
ment goals, we must comprehend the causes of these regions’ lagging
development and formulate policies tailored to local conditions to
achieve comprehensive and balanced development.
The surrounding environment significantly influences the quality of
regional socioeconomic development. We found that the differences in
IHDI between China’s border regions and other regions are primarily
attributable to regional factors, particularly the unique natural envi­
ronmental conditions that have widened the gap between China’s SWT
region and other regions(D. Chen, Zhang, et al., 2019; Ge et al., 2019; Z.
Song & Zhu, 2020a). The SWT border region of China is separated from
neighboring countries by the Himalayas, where the climate is cold, arid
and prone to natural disasters, hence increasing the cost of regional
economic development(Ge et al., 2019). Consequently, its natural
environmental variables are the fundamental explanation for the prev­
alence of low IHDI values. Geographically, borderlands are typically
socially marginalized regions with inadequate infrastructure and loca­
tion conditions(T. Song et al., 2017; Xiao et al., 2021). However, so­
cioeconomic factors may affect the further development of IHDI(Z. Song
& Zhu, 2020a). The high value of IHDI in China’s border regions is
primarily distributed in the N and NE regions, which provide good
development conditions, but the IHDI index exhibits sigmoid or loga­
rithmic function changes due to traffic and location conditions. After
2010, the development speed of IHDI has been slow or even stagnant. Its
unfavorable location, population loss, and imbalanced economic and
industrial structure severely impede its development.
In addition to natural environmental and socioeconomic factors,
policy support is also a key driving force for regional development. From
the perspective of China’s border regions, Tibet’s socioeconomic
development has been hampered for a long time by unsuitable
12
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
conditions for human survival. However, in recent years, the Chinese
government has invested a substantial amount of money in supporting
the development of this region. The construction of hydropower sta­
tions, the China-Nepal Highway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, and other
major national projects has bolstered Tibet’s socioeconomic develop­
ment(Bao, 2021; S. Li et al., 2018; Murton, 2020). Since 2010, its IHDI
values have grown exponentially, reducing the IHDI gap between it and
the neighboring Indian regions in the corresponding geographic loca­
tion. Besides China’s SWT region, the SW is a government-driven eco­
nomic development region. Approximately 47.1% of the units in the SW
region exhibit linear pattern development. Due to the implementation of
China’s western development strategy and the development of express
delivery of infrastructure construction in recent years, these areas are in
a relatively good development situation. Comparing the two sides re­
veals that the N regions along the land border have similar regional
environmental and climatic characteristics, but their development status
is distinct. The development of China’s Inner Mongolia benefited from
China’s continuous economic development. It engages in trade cooper­
ation with other regions based on its abundant resources and rapid so­
cioeconomic development. Regarding human resources, technology,
and resource extraction, Mongolia cannot adequately support its border
regions. The development gap between the two will continue to widen
over time. A similar situation occurs along the border between China
and North Korea(Piao et al., 2015).
5.3. Limitations and future research
Even though we have obtained reliable results in analyzing socio­
economic development inequalities along China’s land borders, several
things could still be improved. First, due to the quality limits of night­
time light data, it is often challenging to differentiate rural interiors or
hilly regions using only nighttime light photos, which could affect the
accuracy of our model results; Second, the scarcity and unreliability of
accurate statistical data across countries make it difficult to train and
validate satellite-based models; Third, we only conducted research
along China’s border, so its contribution to the global understanding of
socioeconomic development variations may be limited.
Future research will rely heavily on our ability to overcome these
limitations. We listed three works that would be particularly useful in
N. Wan et al.
the future: (1) We will employ higher-resolution nighttime light data
(Luojia 1-01 NTL imaging) and integrate optical sensors with varied
temporal and spatial resolutions, as well as different forms of imagery (e.
g., Landsat), in order to examine a more satisfying resolution using
spatial metrics. In addition, deep learning models may be required to
investigate the complex relationship between these non-structural
characteristics and socioeconomic statistics; (2) Additional visits and
surveys are required to collect accurate and reliable socioeconomic data
from various regions to optimize models to detect these differences. This
work also requires international cooperation (Xiao et al., 2021); (3)
Based on the improvement of the two works mentioned earlier, we
expect to conduct studies on socioeconomic inequality along national
borders on an intercontinental or worldwide scale in the future.
6. Conclusions
In this study, we developed a method to infer socioeconomic
development along China’s land board from NTL data. Our results show
the differences in the socioeconomic development of the counties in
China and its neighboring countries. Overall, socioeconomic develop­
ment in China is significantly higher than the counterparts in its
neighboring countries, except along the border in Tibet, and the gap
seems to widen in the future. The counties in China along its land border
mainly show a logarithmic and sigmoid-developed mode. By contrast,
the counties in China’s neighbors mainly show an exponential or stable
mode. The uneven socioeconomic development along China’s land
border could be mainly attributed to their natural settings.
Credit author statement
Nan Wang: Writing- Original draft preparation Conceptualization,
Methodology. Yunyan Du: Funding acquisition, Writing- Reviewing and
Editing. Fuyuan Liang: Writing- Reviewing and Editing. Jiawei Yi:
Writing - Review & Editing. Jiale Qian: Writing - Review & Editing,
Visualization. Wenna TU: Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization.
Sheng Huang: Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Pro­
gram of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA20040401), the Strategic
Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(XDA19040501).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102899.
References
Amaral, S., Câmara, G., Monteiro, A. M. V., Quintanilha, J. A., & Elvidge, C. D. (2005).
Estimating population and energy consumption in Brazilian Amazonia using DMSP
night-time satellite data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 29(2), 179–195.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2003.09.004
Bao, B. L. (2021). Trilateral relations among China, Nepal and India: Opportunities,
challenges and prospects. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies, 4(7).
https://doi.org/10.32996/jhsss.2021.4.7.2, 05–14.
Bennett, M. M., & Smith, L. C. (2017). Advances in using multitemporal night-time lights
satellite imagery to detect, estimate, and monitor socioeconomic dynamics. Remote
Sensing of Environment, 192, 176–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.01.005
Breiman, L. (2001). Random forests. Machine Learning, 45(1), 5–32.
Brock, G. (2019). A remote sensing look at the economy of a Russian region (Rostov)
adjacent to the Ukrainian crisis. Journal of Policy Modeling, 41(2), 416–431. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2019.02.013
Brunet-Jailly, E. (2005). Theorizing borders: An interdisciplinary perspective. Geopolitics,
10(4), 633–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650040500318449
Cheng, Y., Liu, H., Chen, D., & Liu, H. (2022). Human activity intensity and its spatial-
temporal evolution in China’s border areas. Land, 11(7), 1089. https://doi.org/
10.3390/land11071089
13
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
Chen, X., & Nordhaus, W. D. (2011). Using luminosity data as a proxy for economic
statistics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(21), 8589–8594.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1017031108
Chen, J., Xu, C., Cui, L., Huang, S., & Song, M. (2019). Driving factors of CO2 emissions
and inequality characteristics in China: A combined decomposition approach. Energy
Economics, 78, 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2018.12.011
Chen, Z., Yu, B., Yang, C., Zhou, Y., Yao, S., Qian, X., Wang, C., Wu, B., & Wu, J. (2021).
An extended time series (2000–2018) of global NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light data
from a cross-sensor calibration. Earth System Science Data, 13(3), 889–906. https://
doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-889-2021
Chen, D., Zhang, Y., Yao, Y., Hong, Y., Guan, Q., & Tu, W. (2019). Exploring the spatial
differentiation of urbanization on two sides of the Hu Huanyong Line—based on
nighttime light data and cellular automata. Applied Geography, 112, Article 102081.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2019.102081
Chen, J., Zhou, C., Wang, S., & Hu, J. (2018). Identifying the socioeconomic
determinants of population exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) in China using
geographically weighted regression modeling. Environmental Pollution, 241,
494–503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.05.083
Comim, F., & Hirai, T. (2022). Sustainability and human development indicators: A poset
analysis. Ecological Economics, 198, Article 107470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecolecon.2022.107470
Cui, Y., Feng, P., Jin, J., & Liu, L. (2018). Water resources carrying capacity evaluation
and diagnosis based on set pair analysis and improved the entropy weight method.
Entropy, 20(5), 359. https://doi.org/10.3390/e20050359
Devarajan, S. (2013). Africa’s statistical tragedy. Review of Income and Wealth, 59.
https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12013. S9–S15.
Doll, C. N. H., Muller, J.-P., & Morley, J. G. (2006). Mapping regional economic activity
from night-time light satellite imagery. Ecological Economics, 57(1), 75–92. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.03.007
Dong, X.-Y., & Hao, Y. (2018). Would income inequality affect electricity consumption?
Evidence from China. Energy, 142, 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
energy.2017.10.027
Elbers, C., Lanjouw, J. O., & Lanjouw, P. (2003). Micro-level estimation of poverty and
inequality. Econometrica, 71(1), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-
0262.00399
Elvidge, C. D., Baugh, K. E., Dietz, J. B., Bland, T., Sutton, P. C., & Kroehl, H. W. (1999).
Radiance calibration of DMSP-OLS low-light imaging data of human settlements.
Remote Sensing of Environment, 68(1), 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257
(98)00098-4
Fotheringham, A. S., Brunsdon, C., & Charlton, M. (2002). Geographically weighted
regression: The analysis of spatially varying relationships. Wiley. https://books.google.
com.hk/books?id=GFjFX-3dH68C.
Fusilli, L., Marzialetti, P., Laneve, G., & Santilli, G. (2014). Urban growth assessment
around Winam Gulf of Kenya based on satellite imagery. Acta Astronautica, 93,
279–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2013.07.008
Ge, Y., Hu, S., Ren, Z., Jia, Y., Wang, J., Liu, M., Zhang, D., Zhao, W., Luo, Y., Fu, Y.,
Bai, H., & Chen, Y. (2019). Mapping annual land use changes in China’s poverty-
stricken areas from 2013 to 2018. Remote Sensing of Environment, 232, Article
111285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111285
Giles-Corti, B., Vernez-Moudon, A., Reis, R., Turrell, G., Dannenberg, A. L., Badland, H.,
Foster, S., Lowe, M., Sallis, J. F., Stevenson, M., & Owen, N. (2016). City planning
and population health: A global challenge. The Lancet, 388(10062), 2912–2924.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30066-6
Gollini, I., Lu, B., Charlton, M., Brunsdon, C., & Harris, P. (2015). GWmodel: An R
package for exploring spatial heterogeneity using geographically weighted models.
Journal of Statistical Software, 63(17). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v063.i17
Hartigan, J. A., & Wong, M. A. (2013). A K-means clustering algorithm. Applied Statistics,
28, 100–108.
Henderson, J. V., Squires, T., Storeygard, A., & Weil, D. (2016). The global spatial
distribution of economic activity: Nature, history, and the role of trade. National Bureau
of Economic Research, Article w22145. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22145. No.
w22145.
Hu, L., He, S., Han, Z., Xiao, H., Su, S., Weng, M., & Cai, Z. (2019). Monitoring housing
rental prices based on social media:An integrated approach of machine-learning
algorithms and hedonic modeling to inform equitable housing policies. Land Use
Policy, 82, 657–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.12.030
Jean, N., Burke, M., Xie, M., Davis, W. M., Lobell, D. B., & Ermon, S. (2016). Combining
satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty. Science, 353(6301),
790–794. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf7894
Ju, Y., Dronova, I., Ma, Q., & Zhang, X. (2017). Analysis of urbanization dynamics in
mainland China using pixel-based night-time light trajectories from 1992 to 2013.
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 38(21), 6047–6072. https://doi.org/
10.1080/01431161.2017.1302114
Kassidas, A., MacGregor, J. F., & Taylor, P. A. (1998). Synchronization of batch
trajectories using dynamic time warping. AIChE Journal, 44(4), 864–875. https://
doi.org/10.1002/aic.690440412
Khan, A., Gupta, S., & Gupta, S. K. (2020). Multi-hazard disaster studies: Monitoring,
detection, recovery, and management, based on emerging technologies and optimal
techniques. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 47, Article 101642.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101642
Klugman, J., Rodríguez, F., & Choi, H.-J. (2011). The HDI 2010: New controversies, old
critiques. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 9(2), 249–288. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s10888-011-9178-z
Levin, N., & Duke, Y. (2012). High spatial resolution night-time light images for
demographic and socio-economic studies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 119, 1–10.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.12.005
N. Wan et al.
Levin, N., Kyba, C. C. M., Zhang, Q., Sánchez de Miguel, A., Román, M. O., Li, X.,
Portnov, B. A., Molthan, A. L., Jechow, A., Miller, S. D., Wang, Z., Shrestha, R. M., &
Elvidge, C. D. (2020). Remote sensing of night lights: A review and an outlook for the
future. Remote Sensing of Environment, 237, Article 111443. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.rse.2019.111443
Li, G., Chang, L., Liu, X., Su, S., Cai, Z., Huang, X., & Li, B. (2019). Monitoring the
spatiotemporal dynamics of poor counties in China: Implications for global
sustainable development goals. Journal of Cleaner Production, 227, 392–404. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.135
Li, G., & Fang, C. (2014). Global mapping and estimation of ecosystem services values
and gross domestic product: A spatially explicit integration of national ‘green GDP’
accounting. Ecological Indicators, 46, 293–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecolind.2014.05.020
Li, S., Gong, J., Deng, Q., & Zhou, T. (2018). Impacts of the qinghai–tibet Railway on
accessibility and economic linkage of the Third Pole. Sustainability, 10(11), 3982.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su10113982
Imhoff, M. L., Lawrence, W. T., Stutzer, D. C., & Elvidge, C. D. (1997). A technique for
using composite DMSP/OLS “City Lights” satellite data to map urban area. Remote
Sensing of Environment, 61(3), 361–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(97)
00046-1
Liu, H., Fang, C., Miao, Y., Ma, H., Zhang, Q., & Zhou, Q. (2018). Spatio-temporal
evolution of population and urbanization in the countries along the Belt and Road
1950–2050. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 28(7), 919–936. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s11442-018-1513-x
Li, X., & Zhou, W. (2018). Dasymetric mapping of urban population in China based on
radiance corrected DMSP-OLS nighttime light and land cover data. Science of the
Total Environment, 643, 1248–1256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
scitotenv.2018.06.244
Lu, B., Charlton, M., Harris, P., & Fotheringham, A. S. (2014). Geographically weighted
regression with a non-euclidean distance metric: A case study using hedonic house
price data. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 28(4), 660–681.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2013.865739
Marshall, B., Driscoll, A., Lobell David, B., & Stefano, E. (2021). Using satellite imagery
to understand and promote sustainable development. Science, 371(6535), Article
eabe8628. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe8628
Ma, T., Zhou, Y., Zhou, C., Haynie, S., Pei, T., & Xu, T. (2015). Night-time light derived
estimation of spatio-temporal characteristics of urbanization dynamics using DMSP/
OLS satellite data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 158, 453–464. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.rse.2014.11.022
McCallum, I., Kyba, C. C. M., Bayas, J. C. L., Moltchanova, E., Cooper, M.,
Cuaresma, J. C., Pachauri, S., See, L., Danylo, O., Moorthy, I., Lesiv, M., Baugh, K.,
Elvidge, C. D., Hofer, M., & Fritz, S. (2022). Estimating global economic well-being
with unlit settlements. Nature Communications, 13(1), 2459. https://doi.org/
10.1038/s41467-022-30099-9
Milenkovic, N., Vukmirovic, J., Bulajic, M., & Radojicic, Z. (2014). A multivariate
approach in measuring socio-economic development of MENA countries. Economic
Modelling, 38, 604–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2014.02.011
Mirza, M. U., Xu, C., Bavel, B. van, van Nes, E. H., & Scheffer, M. (2021). Global
inequality remotely sensed. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(18),
Article e1919913118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919913118
Miśkiewicz, J. (2008). Globalization—entropy unification through the Theil index.
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 387(26), 6595–6604. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.physa.2008.08.007
Murton, G. (2020). Roads to China and infrastructural relations in Nepal. Environment
and Planning C: Politics and Space, 38(5), 840–847. https://doi.org/10.1177/
2399654420911410g
Pandey, B., Brelsford, C., & Seto, K. C. (2022). Infrastructure inequality is a characteristic
of urbanization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(15), Article
e2119890119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119890119
Piao, M., Yan, C., & Fujimoto, N. (2015). Industrial agglomeration in border areas in
Northeast China: The case of yanbian in the China–North Korea–Russia triangle
border area. Innovation and Supply Chain Management, 9(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/
10.14327/iscm.9.1
Pokhriyal, N., & Jacques, D. C. (2017). Combining disparate data sources for improved
poverty prediction and mapping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114
(46), E9783–E9792. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1700319114
Puttanapong, N., Martinez, A., Bulan, J. A., Addawe, M., Durante, R. L., & Martillan, M.
(2022). Predicting poverty using geospatial data in Thailand. ISPRS International
Journal of Geo-Information, 11(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi11050293
Ramaker, H.-J., van Sprang, E. N. M., Westerhuis, J. A., & Smilde, A. K. (2003). Dynamic
time warping of spectroscopic BATCH data. Analytica Chimica Acta, 498(1–2),
133–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2003.08.045
14
Applied Geography 152 (2023) 102899
Ravallion, M. (2003). Measuring aggregate welfare in developing countries: How well do
national accounts and surveys agree? The Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(3),
645–652 (JSTOR).
Rousseeuw, P. J. (1987). Silhouettes: A graphical aid to the interpretation and validation
of cluster analysis. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 20, 53–65.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-0427(87)90125-7
Sala-i-Martin, X. (2006). The world distribution of income: Falling poverty and…
Convergence, period. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(2), 351–397.
Sanusi, Y. A. (2008). Application of human development index to measurement of
deprivations among urban households in Minna, Nigeria. Habitat International, 32(3),
384–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2007.11.009
Shi, K., Chang, Z., Chen, Z., Wu, J., & Yu, B. (2020). Identifying and evaluating poverty
using multisource remote sensing and point of interest (POI) data: A case study of
chongqing, China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 255, Article 120245. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120245
Shorrocks, A. F. (1980). The class of additively decomposable inequality measures.
Econometrica, 48(3), 613. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913126
Shukla, V., & Parikh, K. (1992). The environmental consequences of urban growth: Cross-
national perspectives on economic development, air pollution, and city size. Urban
Geography, 13(5), 422–449.
Small, C., Elvidge, C. D., Balk, D., & Montgomery, M. (2011). Spatial scaling of stable
night lights. Remote Sensing of Environment, 115(2), 269–280. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.rse.2010.08.021
Song, T., Cheng, Y., Liu, W., & Liu, H. (2017). Spatial difference and mechanisms of
influence of geo-economy in the border areas of China. Journal of Geographical
Sciences, 27(12), 1463–1480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1447-8
Song, Z., & Zhu, Q. (2020a). Spatio-temporal pattern and driving forces of urbanization
in China’s border areas. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 30(5), 775–793. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s11442-020-1755-2
Song, Z., & Zhu, Q. (2020b). Spatio-temporal pattern and driving forces of urbanization
in China’s border areas. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 30(5), 775–793. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s11442-020-1755-2
Tsend, B. (2019). The Mongolia- China-Russia: Opportunities and challenges to develop
cross-border cooperation. Journal of International Studies, 5–39. https://doi.org/
10.5564/jis.v0i1.1252
Wang, W., Cheng, H., & Zhang, L. (2012). Poverty assessment using DMSP/OLS night-
time light satellite imagery at a provincial scale in China. Advances in Space Research,
49(8), 1253–1264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2012.01.025
Watmough, G. R., Marcinko, C. L. J., Sullivan, C., Tschirhart, K., Mutuo, P. K.,
Palm, C. A., & Svenning, J.-C. (2019). Socioecologically informed use of remote
sensing data to predict rural household poverty. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, 116(4), 1213. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812969116
Wu, J., Wang, Z., Li, W., & Peng, J. (2013). Exploring factors affecting the relationship
between light consumption and GDP based on DMSP/OLS nighttime satellite
imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment, 134, 111–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
rse.2013.03.001
Xiao, C., Li, P., Feng, Z., & Zheng, F. (2021). Global border watch: From land use change
to joint action. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation,
103, Article 102494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2021.102494
Xu, C. (2020). Determinants of carbon inequality in China from static and dynamic
perspectives. Journal of Cleaner Production, 277, Article 123286. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123286
Xu, J., Song, J., Li, B., Liu, D., & Cao, X. (2021). Combining night time lights in prediction
of poverty incidence at the county level. Applied Geography, 135, Article 102552.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102552
Yu, B., Shi, K., Hu, Y., Huang, C., Chen, Z., & Wu, J. (2015). Poverty evaluation using
NPP-viirs nighttime light composite data at the county level in China. Ieee Journal of
Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 1. https://doi.org/
10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2399416. –13.
Zhang, P., Kohli, D., Sun, Q., Zhang, Y., Liu, S., & Sun, D. (2020). Remote sensing
modeling of urban density dynamics across 36 major cities in China: Fresh insights
from hierarchical urbanized space. Landscape and Urban Planning, 203, Article
103896. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103896
Zhou, Y., Li, X., Chen, W., Meng, L., Wu, Q., Gong, P., & Seto, K. C. (2022). Satellite
mapping of urban built-up heights reveals extreme infrastructure gaps and
inequalities in the Global South. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119
(46), Article e2214813119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2214813119
Zhu, Z., Zhou, Y., Seto, K. C., Stokes, E. C., Deng, C., Pickett, S. T. A., & Taubenböck, H.
(2019). Understanding an urbanizing planet: Strategic directions for remote sensing.
Remote Sensing of Environment, 228, 164–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
rse.2019.04.020