Abstract:

This paper firstly derived urban information from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) data in 1992, 1996 and 1998 with the support of statistical data, and then developed three basic urban models of polygon-urbanization, line-urbanization and point-urbanization in urban agglomerations from viewpoint of spatial analysis. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Urban patch numbers in the Bohai Rim increased from 1659 to 2053 with an annual average increase number of about 66. Meanwhile, the small urban patches accounted for a larger proportion in the region and the patch density increased fast. In addition, the urban barycenter of the region showed a moving trend toward northwest from 1992 to 1998. Urbanization in the Bohai Rim in the 1990s is fast and obvious. (2) Urbanization in the Bohai Rim can be reflected by three basic processes, i.e., the polygon-urbanization around the big cities, the line-urbanization around the transportation lines and the point-urbanization emerging in large areas. Of them, the polygon-urbanization has been in dominance. It is obviously within an effective range of 3-4 km surrounding the urban patches. The line-urbanization and point-urbanization in the region was relatively small, both of which showed an obvious increasing trend.

Key words: DMSP/OLS, urbanization agglomeration, urbanization, spatial mode, process, Bohai Rim