Policy and Other Outputs

Using night lights satellite imagery to estimate spatial economic change in Johannesburg between 2011 and 2021

This Rapid Research Paper has been done as a proof of concept to show that night lights satellite imagery can be a valuable tool to help model spatial economic trends in the South African context, where there has historically been a dearth of reliable, regularly-updated, fine grained spatial economic datasets. The work was done on request from, and in partnership with, the City of Johannesburg’s Group Strategy, Policy, Coordination and Relations Unit. Using Johannesburg as a case study, this analysis employs open data, predominantly in the form of free-to-use satellite imagery on night lights, to investigate the spatial spread of economic activity across the City of Johannesburg, and to examine changes in that activity over the period 2011 to 2021.