Peut-on estimer la population des villes chinoises à partir de leur surface bâtie ?

Abstract

Chinese cities are growing so rapidly that we have to implement appropriate methods to measure their size and analyze their evolution. As administrative subdivisions are variable as well as the available sources about urban population, we suggest an estimation based on built-up areas. Landsat satellite images are analyzed for extracting continuously built-up areas. Estimations of the built-up surfaces are provided for about fifty urban agglomerations from 1980 to 2000. They are then compared to population figures given by different data bases in a variety of international sources. Nonlinear relationships between surfaces and population are computed. They demonstrate that our estimations of surfaces are consistent and reliable. However, the evolutions of surfaces as well as population figures are too variable to be reliable. Consequently, the same method cannot be used and has to be supplemented with other sources.

Keywords

• remote sensing
• city
• built environment
• system of cities