Summer suburbanization in Moscow Region: Investigation with nighttime lights satellite imagery

Abstract

In the summertime, many Moscow residents move to second homes in the countryside, which causes strong seasonal fluxes in the population size of the Russian capital, its surroundings, and more remote rural areas. To better understand the spatial scale and patterns of seasonal suburbanization, we tracked the changes in average monthly nighttime light radiance between August and October 2018 at 1 km resolution. Our results revealed a significant, 1.5 times increase of the summer nighttime lighting in the surroundings of Moscow and a more than 2 times increase in the rural areas to the West and North of the capital. This study illustrates the seasonal character of suburbanization in the Moscow agglomeration and raises the question of its effects on both urban and rural development of the area.