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The detection of natural cities in the Netherlands—Nocturnal satellite imagery and Zipf’s law
[Die Abgrenzung natürlicher Städte in den Niederlanden: Nachtsatellitenbilder und das Zipf-Gesetz]

Author

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  • Rolf Bergs

    (PRAC Bergs & Issa Partnership Co.)

Abstract

How to detect the true extent of cities in highly urbanized countries? This paper addresses the delineation of natural urban and non-urban space and its change based on a wider understanding of spatial heterogeneity. The Netherlands is selected as a case study. “Natural” means the extent of urban space irrespective of administrative boundaries. The database, used for this study, is radiance-calibrated nocturnal satellite imagery from the Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Extraction of cities is done by K-means segmentation. Based on the variance of luminosity it is possible to detect natural urban space. After removal of outliers in the skewed pixel distributions and after correction of “blooming” (over-glow of light emission) Zipf’s law is then applied as a test for segmentation adequacy. The comparative analysis for the years 1996 and 2011 shows that the rank-size distribution of natural cities is well confirmed by Zipf’s law, in contrast to that of administrative cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Rolf Bergs, 2018. "The detection of natural cities in the Netherlands—Nocturnal satellite imagery and Zipf’s law [Die Abgrenzung natürlicher Städte in den Niederlanden: Nachtsatellitenbilder und das Zipf-Gesetz]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(2), pages 111-140, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jahrfr:v:38:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10037-018-0122-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10037-018-0122-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sun, Xiangdong & Yuan, Ouyang & Xu, Zhao & Yin, Yanhui & Liu, Qian & Wu, Ling, 2021. "Did Zipf's Law hold for Chinese cities and why? Evidence from multi-source data," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Rolf Bergs, 2021. "Spatial dependence in the rank-size distribution of cities – weak but not negligible," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Rolf Bergs & Rüdiger Budde, 2022. "The potential of small-scale spatial data in regional science," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(2), pages 97-110, August.
    4. Adele Sateriano & Giovanni Quaranta & Rosanna Salvia & Francisco Escrivà Saneugenio & Alvaro Marucci & Luca Salvati & Barbara Zagaglia & Francesco Chelli, 2024. "Envisaging the Intrinsic Departure from Zipf’s Law as an Indicator of Economic Concentration along Urban–Rural Gradients," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, March.

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