ESTIMATION OF TRANSPORT DEMAND USING SATELLITE IMAGE: CASE STUDY OF CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

Abstract

Transport demand is one of the essential datasets for urban / transport planning and policy
development. However, the full size of travel demand survey requires large amount of cost, therefore the survey
is merely conducted in developing countries. Their policy decision might be based on the old and limited
datasets. In this study we propose a new approach to estimate transport demand using the night-time light
satellite image based on the correlation of these two factors. Taking the case of Chiang Mai Metropolitan area,
we found a soft relationship between the night-time light intensity and trip generation/trip attraction. Transport
survey data is provided by Chiang Mai University for the year 2016. NOAA provides cloud free monthly
composite of night-time light satellite image (VIIRS-DNB) by Suomi-NPP satellite of which resolution is 15
arc-second (about 500m by 500m at equator). It is spatially more precise than zones of travel demand survey
and monthly frequency. Applying the relationship between transport demand and night-time light intensity, we
propose a method to update the transport demand with higher spatial resolution.