Human Development–Connectivity Intensity Index (HDCI)

A dataset designed to meet the need for continuous characterization of human activity impacts against the backdrop of China’s rapid urbanization and the development of its infrastructure network, covering the period from 1990 to 2024 with a spatial resolution of 1 km and long-term comparability. The dataset integrates seven types of pressure indicators: population density, nighttime lights, urban land, farmland, roads, railways, and reservoirs. It employs a novel reverse distance-weighted method (RFIDW) assisted by random forests to adaptively represent the differentiated impact ranges of human land use at various scales, and adopts a hierarchical fixed-weight strategy based on robust correlation structures to suppress measurement bias from highly correlated indicators. Building upon the macro-level identification capabilities of traditional human impact indices, this dataset more accurately reflects the spatial impact patterns jointly shaped by human development and infrastructure connectivity during China’s long-term development process.