Analysis of the Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Shrinking Cities in China: Evidence from Nighttime Light

Since the 1980s, rapid urbanization in China has been accompanied by city shrinkage. Identifying shrinking cities and clarifying spatial temporal patterns are of great significance for formulating policies realizing smart City shrinkage characterized population loss is a difficult challenge urban planning regional development policy-making. This paper uses 2012–2020 nighttime light (NTL) data to identify distribution excavates cities’ trend agglomeration dispersion further. The following results obtained. (1) About 34.9% prefecture-level across country but most severely northeast northwest China; (2) number fluctuates over time (2015 2020 peak years). Shrinking show northeast-to-southwest distribution. (3) From 2012 2020, aggregation degree continuously decreased (Low-Low) growth increased (High-High), indicating that was slightly alleviated radiative effect pole further enhanced. These findings help us better understand China. Future work needs be focused on potential causes Furthermore, long-term trends also need investigated.