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Polycentric Structure, City Systems and Regional Networks
RESEARCH AREA 030

Polycentric Structure, City Systems and Regional Networks

Research on polycentric structure, city systems and regional networks across 2016-2022.

Research Scope

This research direction brings together 10 outputs published between 2016-2022 on polycentric structure, city systems and regional networks. The collection develops research across polycentric structure, city systems, regional networks, connecting conceptual inquiry, data and analytical methods, empirical evidence, and applications in urban planning and spatial governance.

  • Polycentric Structure
  • City Systems
  • Regional Networks
  1. 01Conceptual framing
  2. 02Data and method development
  3. 03Multi-scale empirical analysis
  4. 04Planning and policy application
Research Outputs

Publications in Detail

012022
Research Output

Identifying subcenters with a nonparametric method and ubiquitous point-of-interest data: A case study of 284 Chinese cities

Ying Long, Yimeng Song, Long Chen

Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 49(1), 58-75

Abstract

Urban spatial structure, which is primarily defined as the spatial distribution of employment and residences, has been of lasting interest to urban economists, geographers, and planners for good reason. This paper proposes a nonparametric method that combines the Jenks natural break method and the Moran’s I to identify a city’s polycentric structure using point-of-interest density. Specifically, a polycentric city consists of one main center and at least one subcenter. A qualified (sub)center should have a significantly higher density of human activity than its immediate sur- roundings (locally high) and a relatively higher density than all the other subareas in the city (globally high). T reating Chinese cities as the subject, we ultimately identified 70 cities with polycentric structures from 284 prefecture-level cities in China. In addition, regression analyses were conducted to reveal the predictors of polycentricity among the subjects. The regression results indicate that the total population, GDP , average wage, and urban land area of a city all Corresponding authors: Yimeng Song, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. Email: yimsong@polyu.edu.hk EPB: Urban Analytics and City Science ! The Author(s) 2021 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/2399808321996705 journals.sagepub.com/home/epb Long Chen, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China. Email: longchen@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn 2022, Vol. 49(1) 58 –75 Long et al. 59 method for identifying main centers and subcenters across cities and to reveal common predic- tors of polycentricity. The proposed method avoids some of the potential problems in the con- ventional approach, such as the arbitrariness of threshold setting and sensitivity to spatial scales. It can also be replicated rather conveniently, as its input data, such as point-of-interest data, are widely available to the public and the data’s validity can be efficiently checked by field trips or other traditional data sources, such as land-use maps or censuses.

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022019
Research Output

实体地域

马爽和龙瀛

Source document (2019)

Abstract

China’s administrative cities and spatia l cities are mismatched and the administrative cities are much larger than their spatial regions. In th e administrative boundary,Chinese cities com pose both urbanization area and rural area,thus it if very important for redefining Chinse city system. In this article,using communities as basic administrative units and the data of urban built-up areas , a straightforward method to identify physical urba n area has been established. According to our studies, there are total 1 227 cities in China from th e perspective of physical urban area covering 60 535 km2. There are 62.7% of Chinese administrativ e cities do not contain any cities from the physical urban area perspective and most of the m (occupying 84.4%) are coun ty level cities. There are 10 administrative cities contain at least 5 cities from the physical urban area perspective,and can suggest them to divide into several smaller cities for management. These cities are Chongqing, Beijing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Zaozhuang, Shantou and Foshan. Ou r study is expected to an swer a basic question fo r urban planning discipline: Where the city is? An d to establish a spatial identification system to distinguish urbanization areas and rural areas, to support the urban and rural planning an d construction, and ministry of civil affairs to adjus t urban administrative divisions.

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032019
Research Output

实体地域

马爽和龙瀛

Source document (2019)

Abstract

在空间维度科学地识别全国范围的城市实体地域 , 是客观认识城市化 、 完善城乡统计和制定城乡规划策略的基础 。 以乡镇街道办事处为基本单元 , 基于城镇建设用地分布资料 , 建立了一套完整的基于乡镇街道办事处房次行政单元的划分实体地域的简单直接的方法 , 识别了全国城市实体地域并从空间维度重新定义了全国城市系统 。 研冗表明 , 依照实体地域划分 , 20 1 5 年全国共有 7 8 7 个城市 , 比官方认可的 65 9 个行政城市多了 1 9 . 4% , 城市总面积 6 0 , 63 0 k m 2 。 全国有 2 62 个行政城市不包含实体城市 , 其中地级市主要包括呼伦贝尔 、 铁岭 、 通化 、 张家界 、 防城港 、 巴中 、 普洱和榆林 , 县市级主要包括五家渠 、 井闪山 、 阿兰山口 、 兰溪 、 玉树和新乐 。 全国有 1 1 个城市包含 3 个以上实体城市 , 包括北京 ( 7 个 ) 、 重庆 ( 7 个 ) 、 伊春 ( 6 个 ) 、 天津 ( 5 个 ) 、 唐山 ( 5 个 ) 、 大庆 ( 5 个 ) 、 上海 ( 4 个 ) 、 杭川 ( 4 个 ) 、 大连 ( 4 个 ) 、 淄博 ( 4 个 ) 和巴彦淖尔 ( 4 个 ) , 可建议将它们分成几个不同的城市来管理 。 研冗有望为城乡规划建设和民政部门调整城市行政区划提供支持 。

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042019
Research Output

中国城市地区

龙瀛

Source document (2019)

Document Overview

This output forms part of the Beijing City Lab research direction on Polycentric Structure, City Systems and Regional Networks. Download the publication below.

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052018
Research Output

Live-Work-Play Centers of Chinese cities: Identification and temporal evolution with emerging data

Juan Li, Ying Long, Anrong Dang

Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 71, 58-66

Abstract

The Live-Work-Play (LWP) center, as a more comprehensive pro file of a city center, has attracted increasing attention in recent years. This paper proposes a straightforward framework for identifying and evaluating LWP centers using ubiquitously available points of interest (POIs) as a proxy for urban function. The framework is then applied to 285 Chinese cities. The results show that 35 Chinese cities in 2014 had polycentric urban structures, increasing from 23 cities in 2009. The temporal evolution of the LWP centers of Chinese cities can be better understood as three types of evolution, di fferentiated by the number of LWP centers, their morphology and location. First, more polycentric cities emerged in 2014 in comparison with 2009. Second, the morpholo- gical change type can be further classi fied as “relative dispersion ”, “relative concentration ”, and “absolute concentration”. Third, the location change type can be classi fied into five types: displacement, division, fusion, emerging, and recession. In the final experiment, the regression results show that larger population and greater road junction density signi ficantly contribute to LWP center formation.

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062017
Research Output

An evaluation of China’s urban agglomeration development from the spatial perspective

Xiao-lu Gao, Ze-ning Xu, Fang-qu Niu, Ying Long

Spatial Statistics, 21, 475-491

Document Overview

Spatial Statistics 21 (2017) 475–491 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Spatial Statistics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/spasta An evaluation of China’s urban agglomeration development from the spatial perspective Gao Xiao-lu a,b,∗, Xu Ze-ning a,b,∗∗, Niu Fang-qu a, Long Ying c a Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China c Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 30 August 2016 Accepted 28 February 2017 Available online 8 March 2017 Keywords: Boundary of integrated urbanised areas Pole-axis theory Densi-Graph Centrality Urban agglomeration a b s t r a c t While Chinese governments used UAs (urban agglomerations) as a policy tool to gain an advantageous position in global and regional competition and made ambitious plans to build up dozens of national, regional and local-level UAs in the next decade, the criteria of UAs from the spatial perspective have been overlooked thus far, and the proposed UAs have been defined approximately by the authority of jurisdiction of clustered cities and towns. This paper argues that rational spatial planning of UAs is impossible without consistent criteria for them and that a solid method is necessary to identify the spatial extension of UAs.

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072017
Research Output

Identifying and Evaluating Urban Centers for the Whole China Using Open Data

Yaotian Ma, Ying Long

Advances in Geographic Information Science, 135-155

Abstract

The urban center is the core component of urban structure. Its identifica- tion and evaluation have long been a concern of the urban planning discipline. However, the central city areas (urban centers) have never been well delineated for the China city system, leading few urban studies on urban centers due to data unavailability. To address this gap and based on reviewing existing identification methods of the urban center, this chapter proposes a novel approach for identifying urban centers using increasingly ubiquitous open data points of interest (POIs) and evaluating the identified nationwide urban centers using various types of open data from four dimensions, respectively. These dimensions range from scale, morphol- ogy, function, to vitality aspects, thus providing opportunities for exploring the overall development characteristics of nationwide urban centers. We hope this chap- ter may shed light on future urban studies on urban centers of China.

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082016
Research Output

京津冀地区城镇空间扩张模拟与分析数据集

刘翠玲和龙瀛

Source document (2016)

Document Overview

This dataset documents simulated urban expansion in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The BUDEM-JJJ model was calibrated with urban land observations for 2000, 2005 and 2010, then used to generate alternative spatial scenarios through 2049 for regional analysis and planning research.

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092016
Research Output

中国多中心

李娟等

Source document (2016)

Document Overview

城市空间结构一直以来都是国内外城市规划学、 地理学等领域的研究热点。 基于西方国家城市化进程远早于中国的客观事实, 城市空间结构理论同许多其他城市理论一样也经历了先引入后本土化的过程。 自20世纪80至90年代中期, 中国学者们开始学习西方城市空间结构理论[1], 并伴随着城市化进程的推进, 对中国城市空间结构的演变和发展趋势做了大量的实证研究。 渠涛等以不同历史时期特殊事件为切入点, 基于百度热力图的中国多中心城市分析摘要 Abstract 关键词 Keywords 作者简介李娟清华大学建筑学院博士研究生李苗裔(通讯作者) 日本金泽大学环境设计学院博士研究生龙瀛清华大学建筑学院副研究员,博士清华大学恒隆房地产研究中心数据增强设计研究室主任党安荣清华大学建筑学院教授,博士生导师综合分析了经济、 社会、 政策等多方面的因素, 发现天津市城市空间结构从最初的同心圆逐渐演变为双核心结构[2]。 张水清等通过上海市中心的各项职能转移, 包括传统制造业转移、 人口与居住职能转移以及服务业转移, 发现上海的城市结构也由同心圆的单中心模式发展为多中心模式, 形成了“多功能、 多极核”的城市空间结构[3]。 李传斌重点研究了建国以来西安城市空间结构的演替过程, 认为西安未来的空间结构应朝着“一核三副多组团”的模式发展[4]。 叶强等城市空间结构 | 多中心 | 百度热力图 | 人群聚集 Urban spatial structure | Polycentric | Baidu heatmap | Human aggregation 数据增强设计 | 31 剖析了长沙的城市空间结构演变, 发现商业空间的发展对其有较大影响, 进而阐述了长沙长久以来的单中心结构的弊端, 建议将长沙打造成多中心网络状结构[5]。 余颖等[6]在紧凑城市的理念下, 对比了重庆、 香港、 上海等城市的空间结构形态, 认为坚持“多中心、 多组团”的空间结构是最适合重庆的发展模式[7]。 赵燕菁更是将深圳市高速发展下的强耐压能力归功于其富有弹性的带状组团式空间结构[8]。 已有的研究成果表明, 中国的城市空间结构有朝向多中心发展的趋势。 孙斌栋等甚至断言多中心式的空间结构是中国特大城市未来形态的必然选择[9]。 与此同时, 随着中国城市发展进入转型期, 以多中心城市发展为目标的规划和政策也逐渐增多[10]。 国家发改委城市和小城镇改革发展中心于 2013年对辽宁等12个省区进行调研发现,12个省会城市均提出建设新城新区,144个地级市中的133个和161个县级市中的67个也相继开展新城新区建设计划 [9]。可见, 无论出于何种原因, 多中心式空间结构模式正在中国受到追捧。 而在世界范围内多中心模式也被广泛认可, 享誉世界的城市与区域规划大师彼得•霍尔就曾带领团队对西北欧8大都市区多中心空间结构进行研究, 论证了多中心的发展趋势和重要性[11]。 当前国内对城市多中心性的实证研究中, 多以单个城市为研究对象, 且都集中于对大城市的研究。 此类分析固然对特定城市的发展具有指导意义, 然而其他城市对其分析结果的借鉴性往往受到城市间差异性的极大限制, 因而就城市发展的一般规律而言, 多个城市的类比也十分必要。 同时, 当前研究多以定性分析为主, 少数的定量分析其数据来自于人口普查和调查问卷, 分析结果很大程度上依赖于研究者的个人经验。 本文试图弥补当前多中心性研究中缺少规律性和缺乏定量分析的不足。 在已有研究成果的基础上, 从研究对象的广度和研究方法的深度上改进研究思路, 创新研究范式。

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102016
Research Output

中国城市网络分析

许留记和龙瀛

Source document (2016)

Document Overview

新数据环境下的城市 : 品质 . 活力与设计 THE M E 基于兴趣点位置和名称的中国城市网络分析许留记龙瀛城市网络研究起源于对 “ 流的空间 ” ( Sp a ce o f F l o w ) 的理解 , 早训究数椐期有关城市网络的研究主要是基于电信容量 、 航空客流 、 互联网等作为研文章的数据为 2 0 1 1 年和 2 0 1 4 究对象进行的 。 国内一些学者釆用类似方法对城市网络进行了实证研究 。 年中国所有的 P O I 网点 。 2 0 1 1 年综合以往研究 , 大多数学者主要利用航班及货运量 、 公路车流量 、 P O I 网点有 5 2 8 1 3 8 2 个 , 2 0 1 4 年 P O I 铁路流量等交通流 , 以及高级生产性服务业数据 , 这些多以母子公司 、 网点有 1 0 5 8 9 3 2 2 个 。 数据格式为企业总部分支机构等为研究对象 , 进行城市网络和城市间联系的研究 。 A r c G I S 中 Sh a pe fi l e 文件的 P o i n t 数对人文要素和居民参与社会活动情况的关注较少 , 而这些数据也不易获据 , 可借助 G I S 软件进行空间可视取 , 这也是相关研究难以开展的主要原因 。 化 ( 图 1 ) 。 相关的空间分析图主随着互联网大数据 、 云计算时代的到来 , 运用计算机编程语言和数要基于 A r c G I S 1 0 . 2 平台进行 。 据抓取技术等 , 可获得一些新类型数据 , 如微博 、 公交卡 、 百度指数 、 数拟解释手机信令 、 P O I 等 。 结合这些数据 , 一些学者也进行了城市网络和地区间 P O I 即是 “ Po i n t o f I n te res t ” 联系的相关研究 。 本文利用数据釆集技术 , 获取到中国各城市的 P O I 网点的缩写 , 可译为 “ 兴趣点 ” 。 在地数据 , 从人们经常参与其中的社会经济活动网点入手 , 根据不同城市的理信息系统中 , 一个 P O I 可以是一行动者在各个地区开设的网点信息而产生的社会空间联系 , 尝试着构建家银行 、 一家超市 、 一个药店 、 一相应的网络模型 , 以此来分析基于社会经济活动的中国节点城市网络联个公交站等 。 包括住宅楼盘点位的系和等级特征 。 P O I ( 源于安居客或搜房网等 ) , 研究区域及数据餐饮类 P O I 、 购物类 P O I 、 生活服研究 K 域务类 P O I ( 源于百度地图或腾讯地研究区域包括全中国所有的地级市 、 地区 、 州和自治区 , 以这些地图等 ) , 本文主要研究居民社会区的城市作为网络节点的研究对象 。 其中 , 截止到 2 0 1 2 年底 , 国家统计活动参与的 P O I 网点 , 根据得到的局数据显示 , 我国目前共有 3 3 3 个地级行政单位 ( 含地级市 、 州 ) 、 4 个 P O I 网点的坐标 , 借助 A r c G I S 软直辖市 、 2 个特别行政区 、 1 个台湾省 。 由于未获取到港澳台数据 , 根据件 , 将对应的坐标转换成相应的空本文构建的模型 , 只能研究其单向间的联系 , 即基于出度 、 开放走出去间网点 P o i n t 数据 , 得到其可视化的网络联系和中心性情况 , 不能得到这些地区的 P O I 网点 , 基于入度反映的空间分布图 。 城市吸引力的网络联系不作分析 。

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