Population, demography and nighttime lights: An examination of the effects of population decline on settlement patterns in Europe
(2014) SGEM04 20141Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- Nighttime satellite photographs of Earth reveal the location of lighting and provide a unique and highly accurate view of human settlement, density and distribution. Nighttime lights have been shown to correlate with economic development and population worldwide. Little research has been done on the link between nighttime lights and population change over time. This link is explored here for Europe between the period of 1992 and 2012 using GIS and regression analysis. This thesis examines whether population change, and specifically population decline, is reflected in nighttime lights or whether other demographic developments which have accompanied population decline in Europe are better reflected in nighttime lights. The results suggest... (More)
- Nighttime satellite photographs of Earth reveal the location of lighting and provide a unique and highly accurate view of human settlement, density and distribution. Nighttime lights have been shown to correlate with economic development and population worldwide. Little research has been done on the link between nighttime lights and population change over time. This link is explored here for Europe between the period of 1992 and 2012 using GIS and regression analysis. This thesis examines whether population change, and specifically population decline, is reflected in nighttime lights or whether other demographic developments which have accompanied population decline in Europe are better reflected in nighttime lights. The results suggest that population decline in Europe is not coupled with decline in nighttime lights. Demographic and structural changes consistent with population decline in Europe may contribute to the divergence between population and nighttime lights. The age structure of the population and the GDP show correlation with lighting during periods of growing and declining population. These results suggest that human settlement distribution in Europe is more closely related to the age structure of the population and to GDP than to the size of the population and that declining populations will not lead to reductions in the human footprint on Earth. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4457536
- author
- Archila Bustos, Maria Francisca LU
- supervisor
-
- Ola Hall LU
- organization
- course
- SGEM04 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- nighttime lights, demographic transition, population decline, human settlement distribution
- language
- English
- id
- 4457536
- date added to LUP
- 2014-09-03 18:12:36
- date last changed
- 2014-09-03 18:12:36
@misc{4457536, abstract = {{Nighttime satellite photographs of Earth reveal the location of lighting and provide a unique and highly accurate view of human settlement, density and distribution. Nighttime lights have been shown to correlate with economic development and population worldwide. Little research has been done on the link between nighttime lights and population change over time. This link is explored here for Europe between the period of 1992 and 2012 using GIS and regression analysis. This thesis examines whether population change, and specifically population decline, is reflected in nighttime lights or whether other demographic developments which have accompanied population decline in Europe are better reflected in nighttime lights. The results suggest that population decline in Europe is not coupled with decline in nighttime lights. Demographic and structural changes consistent with population decline in Europe may contribute to the divergence between population and nighttime lights. The age structure of the population and the GDP show correlation with lighting during periods of growing and declining population. These results suggest that human settlement distribution in Europe is more closely related to the age structure of the population and to GDP than to the size of the population and that declining populations will not lead to reductions in the human footprint on Earth.}}, author = {{Archila Bustos, Maria Francisca}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Population, demography and nighttime lights: An examination of the effects of population decline on settlement patterns in Europe}}, year = {{2014}}, }