Nighttime Monitoring of Economy: Introducing a Modern Regional Approach to Regional Planning

The positive relationship between the level of economic activity and the measured nighttime light (NTL) by satellites can be justified, and several studies have confirmed this relationship. In this research, this relationship, in the period of 1992-2013, was investigated in Iran. The first step is to analyze the analytical approach based on NTL data and the process of data extraction, and then the relationship between NTL data and the level of economic activity was investigated. The results indicate a positive and significant relationship between real GDP and NTL; therefore, it is expected that income and NTL variables distributions have a positive relationship too. The covariance reveals the existence of the positive relationship, which indicates the similarity between the distributions of both variables in the provinces. Accordingly, by more uniform distribution of economic activities, income distribution at the provincial level can be directed towards greater equality. In other words, in the field of regional planning, the distribution of economic activities at the province level should be such that the distribution of income leads to greater equality.