Abstract: As one of the important birth places of Chinese civilization, there are numerous historical cities and towns in the Yellow River Basin. Under the strategic background of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, the evaluation of the economic vitality of historical cities and towns is of great significance for the perception of regional human settlements and the overall assessment of the current status of the protection and utilization of historical cities and towns. Using multi-source spatial data (including topographic maps in the late Qing Dynasty and Early Repulic of China, and today's remote sensing images) to accurately locate historical towns in the Yellow River Basin, we performed multivariate quantitative analysis of area, distance from the river, elevation, slope, etc. ,and analyzed the spatial distribution using the nuclear density method. By constructing two light brightness indices of Luojia 1-01 night time light imagery,the economic vitality of historical city sites was identified,and the influencing factors of night light index was explored. Analyzing the results of night economic classification of cities and towns allows for the study of the protection and utilization of historical city sites in the Yellow River Basin and analysis of the integrity and spatial differences of regional historical cities and towns. In addition, this research also provides new ideas and attempts for historical urban geography and other related research from a data and methods perspective.

Key words: Luojia 1-01, night time light imagery, topographic map, Yellow River Basin, GIS, economic vitality