Examination of the spatio-temporal urban growth patterns using dmsp- ols night-time lights data: an experiment in urban area, Sri Lanka

Understanding the direction and pattern of the urbanization process is important in urban planning and management. It is important to examine the spatial patterns of urban areas earlier to facilitate the decision-making process in sustainable urban growth. Therefore, urban planners use diverse conventional and non-conventional data portals to investigate the spatial patterns of urban growth. However, in developing countries like Sri Lanka, information about space over time becomes inaccessible. To overcome this shortcoming and to show the usefulness of new technologies, satellite-based Night-time Lights (NTL) data were used in this study to identify the urban development pattern within the existing infrastructure environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to show the applicability of “DMSPOLS Night-time Lights” (NTL) data for identifying, analysing urban growth patterns of major towns, as a decision-support process in urban planning in Sri Lanka. The results reveal the urban areas extracted using NTL data in Sri Lanka with a substantial agreement for using NTL data to investigate the spatial patterns of Sri Lanka. This paper explores and guides NTL data processing, and urban area extraction and considers the prospects and challenges relevant to the Sri Lankan context. Thus, there is no doubt about using NTL data for urban analysis in the Sri Lankan context.