The
use of night-time lights satellite imagery as a measure of regional
electricity consumption
Satellite imagery of night-time lights has been used for many applications, including measuring the extent of urban development, regional economic activity, the extent of light pollution, the extent of lighting for fishing and regional energy use. The accuracy of night-time light imagery is limited by the diffusion of light into surrounding area, such that the image of the world at night over estimates the extent of human development and energy consumption. Alec Townsend has built a geospatial model which increases the accuracy of night-time light as a measure of local electricity consumption. The work has applications for those regions of the world where data on electricity consumption may not be publically available due to commercial confidentiality, such as in Australia, or where the data has not been collated, such as many parts of the developing world. The corrected imagery provides an essential digital layer for use in electricity infrastructure modelling as the world moves into the future low carbon economy.
For more information, please contact Alec Townsend or David Bruce