Spatialization approach to 1km grid GDP based on remote sensing

The applications of remote sensing data are maturing and the study of resources and environmental sciences greatly requires the spatialized data sets of socio-economic data which are always obtained from administrative regions at county or province level. Based on the summary and analysis of previous gross domestic product (GDP) spatialization approaches, with the regional differences of China's economic development, the authors integratedly analyze and establish a close spatial relationship between land use database derived from Landsat Multi-spectral TM image and primary industry, secondary industry, tertiary industry according to China's provincial-level administrative boundaries, eventually, create 1km gridded GDP map of China. GDP density map could be reflect complete details and characteristics of the national GDP distribution, which is extending the field of remote sensing research and application in the resources and environmental sciences. Thereby, the results are significant to policies of sustainable economic development and basically explore the interaction between socio-economic and regional ecological environment.