As a major coastal economic province in the east of China, it is of great significance to clarify the temporal and spatial patterns of regional development in Shandong Province in recent years to support regional high-quality development. Nightlight remote sensing data can reveal the spatio-temporal patterns of social and economic activities on a fine pixel scale. We based the nighttime light patterns at three spatial scales in three geographical regions on monthly nighttime light remote sensing data and social statistics. Different cities and different counties in Shandong Province in the last 10 years were studied by using the methods of trend analysis, stability analysis and correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) The nighttime light pattern was generally consistent with the spatial pattern of construction land. The nighttime light intensity of most urban, built-up areas showed an increasing trend, while the old urban areas of Qingdao and Yantai showed a weakening trend. (2) At the geographical unit scale, the total nighttime light in south-central Shandong was significantly higher than that in eastern and northwest Shandong, while the nighttime light growth rate in northwest Shandong was significantly highest. At the urban scale, Liaocheng had the highest nighttime light growth rate. At the county scale, the nighttime light growth rate of counties with a better economy was lower, while that of counties with a backward economy was higher. (3) The nighttime light growth was significantly correlated with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population growth, indicating that regional economic development and population growth were the main causes of nighttime light change.
Keywords: Shandong Province; difference analysis; nighttime light remote sensing; regional development; temporal and spatial pattern.