Boundaries and Blocks in Redefined Cities of China 2011 & 2016

Type & Source

This dataset presents spatially redefined cities and their constituent blocks across China for the years 2011 and 2016, generated using the method proposed by Song et al. (2018) and based on Points of Interest (POIs) and road network data. It reflects the evolving morphology of Chinese cities using high-resolution spatial big data.

Contents

The dataset includes four ESRI Shapefiles:

1. Redefined Cities (2011)
2. Count: 2,005 cities
3. Total Area: ~0.167 million km²
4. Attributes:
5. CityID: Unique identifier
6. Areakm2: Area in square kilometers
7. PoiDens: POI density
8. JuncDens: Road junction density
9. PopDens: Population density
10. Urban Blocks of Redefined Cities (2011)
11. Count: ~78,000 blocks
12. Attributes:
13. CityID: Corresponding city ID
14. Aream2: Area of each block in square meters
15. Redefined Cities (2016)
16. Count: 4,678 cities
17. Total Area: ~0.726 million km²
18. Attributes:
19. CityID: Unique identifier
20. Areakm2: Area in square kilometers
21. PoiDens: POI density
22. Urban Blocks of Redefined Cities (2016)
23. Count: ~187,000 blocks
24. Attributes:
25. CityID: Corresponding city ID
26. Aream2: Area of each block in square meters

Note

Direct comparisons between 2011 and 2016 datasets should be made with caution, as POI data sources and collection methodologies differ between the two years.

Citation

Long, Y. (2016). Redefining Chinese city system with emerging new data. Applied Geography, 75, 36–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.08.002.