Assessing Nighttime DMSP/OLS Data for Detection of Human Settlements in the Brazilian Amazonia

This paper describes an initial assessment of the DMSP/OLS night-light data as an instrument to investigate the human presence and activity over the Brazilian Amazonia. The work explores the potential of the sensor for detecting and monitoring urban area extensions and human presence and activity at a regional scale. Using DMSP/OLS night-lights imagery, the authors detected 248 towns from a total of 749 municípios presented in the Legal Amazonia. All the night-lights foci detected were related to human activities, including urban settlements and mining. A strong linear relation (R2= 0.8) was obtained between urban area extensions, detected by TM/Landsat, and DMSP night-lights foci. Our conclusion is that DMSP/OLS imagery can be used as an indication of human presence and activity in the Amazon region.