###### Abstract  
The nighttime economy (NTE) is one of the primary measures used by the Chinese government to promote urban consumption and capital flow. Especially after COVID-19, more regulations were introduced by both the central and local governments to accelerate this commercial activity. However, the relationship between the NTE and urban development is controversial. There has been controversy over the relationship between the nighttime economy and urban development. We believe that organizations/individuals embedded in different regional contexts have different behavioral patterns, which, in turn, can make cities develop nighttime commercial activities differently. We wonder whether the nighttime economy's large-scale development fits the diverse regional development. There is a lack of discussions of the spatial distribution of nighttime commercial activities from an urban geographical perspective, especially the differences and mechanisms of urban systems based on the nighttime economy. Based on existing research arguments, this article collects points of interest (POI) and nighttime light (NTL) remote sensing data (RSD) to spatialize nighttime economic activities in order to provide a reference for reasonable regional and urban economic planning. The nighttime economy (NTE) is one of the primary channels used by the Chinese government to promote urban consumption and capital flow, and the relationship between the NTE and urban development is controversial. Based on existing research, we selected the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region as an example. We found that there are core-peripheral spatial patterns in nighttime commercial urban systems. The core is Shanghai, and provincial-level core cities form the second category, largely overlapping with the administrative urban system. Although the NTE is primarily concentrated in economically developed coastal areas, it spreads in the northwest-southeast direction, indicating that opportunities will arise in the geo-periphery. Although regulations encourage the growth of the NTE, infrastructure cannot fully support large-scale centralized expansion. The interaction of critical factors, such as urban policies, residents' consumption, industrial structure, and economic foundations, may affect nighttime activities. points of interest; remote sensing data; spatial pattern; nighttime economy +
Footnote †: journal:  
0000-0001-4000-0000-0000-0000-0000-0000-0000-00000-0  
The urban economy's resurgence is increasingly driven by the nighttime economy, especially after COVID-19 [3]. The concept of the nighttime economy originated in Britain in the 1970s [4; 5] and is widely used in research on regional economic development [6; 7; 8]. It is regarded as economic activities spanning from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. [3]. These activities mainly comprise catering, culture, entertainment, arts, festivals, events, sports, nightlife, tourism, and transportation services [3]. Nighttime economic activity is also relevant to the regional context and the local tourism industry [9]. Thus, the nighttime economy (NTE) is an economic phenomenon accompanying the development of urban economic levels [10]; it provides more possibilities for urban or regional economic growth [11], such as reshaping urban spaces, increasing employment opportunities for residents, improving the usage rate of urban infrastructure, and easing employment pressure [12]. The existing research on the NTE has a certain value, but systematic research is lacking about urban spatial patterns and, especially, its mechanisms grounded in GBD. Existing research on the NTE focuses on analyzing the economic value of night activities or the main problems of the NTE. On the one hand, from the perspective of the functional value of the NTE, innovation in the NTE has promoted improvements in product quality, industrial structure innovation, and supply-side service innovation; moreover, it plays an important role in shaping urban social space and driving urban economic growth [10; 13].