Evaluation of China’s High-Speed Rail Station Development and Nearby Human Activity Based on Nighttime Light Images

High-speed rail (HSR) represents China’s advancing productivity; however, quite a few HSR stations face problems due to inappropriate planning and limited passenger flow. To optimize future planning on HSR lines and stations and facilitate efficient operation, we used brightness as a representative of station development and nearby human activity, analyzing its spatial and temporal distribution, classification categories, and influencing factors of 980 stations using nighttime light images from 2012 to 2019. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There are 41 stations with high brightness between 80 and 320 nW·cm(−2)·sr(−1), which are concentrated in provincial capitals, large cities, and at line ends. The overall number of these stations increases by 57% in the past eight years. (2) Stations with high brightness but minimal changes that opened in 2013–2019 are mainly concentrated in provincial capitals and large- or medium-sized cities, and those with high brightness and significant changes are mostly new stations nearby. More than 70% of stations that started HSR operation before or in 2012 have high brightness. (3) Brightness positively correlates with the number of daily trains, and it changes faster at stations with more daily trains. It changes most within 0–1 year after HSR operation opening and exhibits a relatively slow but long-term increase over the next 2–6 years.