ABSTRACT
In general, energy refers to the ability to do work and can be in the form of electricity, thermal, chemical, mechanical, gravitational, nuclear, radiant, sound, and motion. The sources of energy can be fossil (e.g., petroleum, coal, natural gas, wood, etc.), renewable (wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, etc.), and fissile (e.g., uranium, thorium, etc.) (Bilgen 2014). Being one of the three crucial themes (i.e., energy consumption, urbanization, and carbon dioxide emission) in the 21st century, energy has caught much attention as it is essential for socioeconomic development for all countries (Al-mulali et al. 2012; Weng 2013). For the past decades, attention exerted on energy issues in developing countries (e.g., China and India) has been especially intense as these countries are currently experiencing fast urbanization. The leap of their economies has caused rapid growth of energy consumption, and this trend is expected to continue in the near future (Bilgen 2014). However, if the unsustainable energy consumption (e.g., overexploitation of nonrenewable resources and air
15.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 277 15.2 Some Background on NTL-Based Estimation of Energy Consumption ...... 278 15.3 Study Area and Data Sets ............................................................................. 279 15.4 Methodology ................................................................................................. 281
15.4.1 Data Preprocessing ........................................................................... 282 15.4.2 Estimation of Pixel-Based EC .......................................................... 282 15.4.3 Analysis of Spatiotemporal Pattern of EC ........................................ 283
15.5 Results ...........................................................................................................285 15.5.1 Pixel-Based EC for Mainland China ................................................285 15.5.2 Spatiotemporal Pattern of EC at Multiple Scales .............................287 15.5.3 National and Regional Contributions of Urban Areas to EC ...........290
