Research on Urban Spatial Connection and Network Structure of Urban Agglomeration in Yangtze River Delta—Based on the Perspective of Information Flow

Qiaowen Lin, Mengyu Xiang, Lu Zhang, Jinjiang Yao, Chao Wei, Sheng Ye and Hongmei Shao
Additional contact information
Qiaowen Lin: Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430079, China
Mengyu Xiang: Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Lu Zhang: School of Public Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Jinjiang Yao: Science and Technology Innovation and Public Management Research Center of Shanghai, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Sheng Ye: Department of Land Administration, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430079, China
Hongmei Shao: Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430079, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: Exploration of urban spatial connections and network structures of urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta, as well as its influencing factors, is of great significance regarding optimization of the development pattern of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and promotion of regional high-quality development. Therefore, based on Baidu index data in 2015 and 2019, this paper first analyzes the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of information-flow connections in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Then it uses social network analysis to explore the information-flow network structure in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and finally explores the influencing factors of information-flow intensity in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The total amount of information flow in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has had no obvious change, and the coverage of information flow in the central urban circle has expanded. (2) The network hierarchy presents a relatively stable “pyramid” distribution pattern, which tends to develop into a “spindle” pattern. (3) The overall network density of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is high and is increasing. The backbone network is a “triangle” structure. The central cities in the region are stable, and the subgroups are adjacent to each other geographically. (4) Gross Domestic Product, resident population of the region and the number of Internet broadband subscribers all have important effects on the total information flow, among which the number of Internet broadband subscribers has the greatest effect on the total information flow. In addition, urban functions and their positioning, urban events, history and culture, and other factors that are difficult to quantify also have a certain impact on the information-flow network among cities.

Keywords: information flow; Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration; spatial connection; the network structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10288/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10288/ (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:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10288-:d:646697

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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