Analysis of visible infrared imaging radiometer suite capability for population estimation on java island

Population data, despite their significance, are often missing or difficult to access, especially in cities/regencies not belonging to the metropolitan areas or centers of various human activities. This hinders practices that are contingent on their availability. In this study, population estimation was carried out using nighttime light imagery generated by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. The variable illuminated area was integrated with the population data using linear regression based on an allometric formula so as to produce a regression value, correlation coefficient (r), and coefficient of determination (r2). The average r2 between the illuminated area and the total population was 0.86, indicating a strong correlation between the two variables. Validation using samples of population estimates from three different years yielded an average error of 73% for each city and 7% for the entire study area. The estimation results for the number of residents per city/regency cannot be used as population data due to the high percent error, but for the population on a larger regional scale, in this case, the island of Java, they have a much smaller percent error and can be used as an initial picture of the total population.