RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN URBANIZATION AND ROAD NETWORKS IN THE LOWER NORTHEASTERN REGION OF THAILAND USING NIGHTTIME LIGHT SATELLITE IMAGERY

Abstract

The objective of this research on the relationship between urbanization and road networks in the lower Northeastern region of Thailand was to compare the urban area in 2006, 2013 and 2016 using nighttime light satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), acquired by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP/OLS) and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP). After that the relationship between urbanization and road network was identified using nighttime light satellite images from these satellites. The nighttime light data was used to determine the urbanization levels, which were then compared with Landsat 8 Satellite images taken in 2016 in order to find the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results indicated that areas with high urbanization identified from the nighttime light satellite images taken by the Suomi NPP Satellite had a day/night band reflectance of 172-255 indicated and were located primarily along the roads. The analysis of these data suggested that urbanization has a significantly positiverelationship with the road network at 0.01 level, with R2 values of 0.800 for urbanization and 0.985 for the road network.