Industrial Wastewater Discharge Retrieval Based on Stable Nighttime Light Imagery in China from 1992 to 2010

Remote Sensing

Zhaofu Li¹  Hongyu Liu³  Chuan Luo¹  Panpan Li¹  Hengpeng Li² 

[1] College of Resources and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; E-Mails:;Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, China; E-Mail:;College of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; E-Mail:

关键词: industrial wastewater;    retrieval;    DMSP/OLS;    nighttime light imagery;    digital number (DN);    gross industrial production (GIP);    China;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs6087566

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Industrial wastewater (IW) discharge, which is a known point source of pollution, is a major water pollution source. Increasing IW discharge has imposed considerable pressure on regional or global water environments. It is important to estimate the IW distribution in grid units to improve basin-scale hydrological processes and water quality modeling. For the first time, we use the nighttime light imagery produced by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) to estimate the spatial and temporal variations in the IW distribution from 1992 to 2010 in China. The digital number values per unit area (DNP) of each stable light image were calculated using nighttime light imagery and were regressed against the IW per unit area (IWP) to estimate the total industrial wastewater (TIW) for each province. The results indicated strong positive correlations between the DNP and the IWP for each province during different years. The fitted linear regression models were used to estimate IW discharge in China with reliable accuracy. The IW estimation using the satellite data was consistent with the statistical results. The results also revealed that the IW discharge coverage expanded, whereas the IW discharge intensity decreased from 1992 to 2010 in China.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland