GDP growth is often measured poorly for countries and rarely measured at all for cities. We propose a readily available proxy: satellite data on lights at night. Our statistical framework uses light growth to supplement existing income growth measures. The framework is applied to countries with...

Cyclone Idai, the most devastating cyclone ever recorded in Southern Africa, caused havoc in large parts of central Mozambique, especially the port city of Beira, upon its landfall in March 2019. This study reviews and compares measurements of the impact, using various sources of remote sensing...

In Bangladesh, cities are conventionally classified based on population size and revenue collection. This conventional city classification system neglects the spatial characteristics inherit in cities. Providing a more comprehensive city classification system is essential for the country’s...

Greater Cairo (GC) is the seventh-largest metropolitan city globally. In recent decades, GC has witnessed massive urban expansion, which has yet to be empirically measured or characterized. This research seeks to explore the patterns of urban growth and changes in urban form in GC from 1973 to...

We evaluate the usefulness of satellite-based data on nighttime lights for the prediction of annual GDP growth across a global sample of countries. Going beyond traditional measures of luminosity, such as the sum of lights within a country's borders, we propose several innovative distribution-...

This research introduces an innovative GDP nowcasting strategy tailored for developing countries, specifically addressing challenges related to limited data timeliness. The study centers on Bolivia, where the official monthly indicator of economic growth is released with a substantial delay of...

In India, urban sprawl of metropolitan cities and other large cities is a widespread concern for planners and policy makers. Modeling urban sprawl of small and medium size towns is completely bypassed urban research of India. This study attempted to fill-up the gap by addressing the three urban...