Sustainable Distribution Organization Based on the Supply–Demand Coordination in Large Chinese Cities

Sijing Liu, Jiuping Xu, Xiaoyuan Shi, Guoqi Li and Dinglong Liu
Additional contact information
Sijing Liu: National United Engineering Laboratory of Integrated and Intelligent Transportation, School of Transportation & Logistics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Jiuping Xu: Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610044, China
Xiaoyuan Shi: Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610044, China
Guoqi Li: National United Engineering Laboratory of Integrated and Intelligent Transportation, School of Transportation & Logistics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Dinglong Liu: National United Engineering Laboratory of Integrated and Intelligent Transportation, School of Transportation & Logistics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-25

Abstract: In large Chinese cities, inefficient logistics organization, a rapid increase in freight demand, and the spreading of city logistics space have jointly contributed to the urban problems related to goods movement, such as spatial conflicts, traffic congestion, and air pollution. To address these problems and improve urban sustainability, we proposed a new spatial organization model of supply–demand coordination. We used the data from the Third China Economic Census and online point-of-interest (POI) for China’s four direct-controlled municipalities and 13 sub-provincial cities. We found that: (1) the freight supply and demand in China’s large cities are both spatially decentralized and clustered. However, there is a significant spatial mismatch between freight supply and demand in most of the studied cities. (2) The 17 studied cities can be divided into three types—highly unbalanced, unbalanced, and balanced—in light of the spatial mismatch between freight supply and demand. (3) The capacities of road surface and logistics nodes spatially differ. The supply capacity of the road systems in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou can only accommodate 18.4%, 35.5%, and 32.2% of the demand, respectively, while the supply capacity of the logistics nodes is more than twice that of the actual demand in these cities. Based on the findings, this paper proposed a differentiated method of demand management in different areas of the cities. To achieve the goals of low-carbon and sustainable development in logistics distribution, policy makers may consider planning urban freight activities along metro lines and intercity rail lines. Thus, this paper will provide a new perspective for understanding the urban freight distribution and management in large Chinese cities.

Keywords: distribution mode; supply and demand; sustainable development; city logistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3042/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3042/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3042-:d:166010

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().