Detecting the Spatial Network Structure of the Guanzhong Plain Urban Agglomeration, China: A Multi-Dimensional Element Flow Perspective

Bao Meng, Jifei Zhang () and Xiaohui Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Bao Meng: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China
Jifei Zhang: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Xiaohui Zhang: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Element flow has gradually become an important method for studying urban spatial structure. This study examined 11 prefectural cities in the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration; constructed a measurement model for information, traffic, migration, and composite networks; and analyzed the spatial structure of the urban network of the urban agglomeration through social network analysis and spatial visualization. The spatial structure of the composite flow network had Xi’an as the center and Xianyang, Baoji, Weinan and Tianshui as important nodes; Yuncheng, Linfen and Qingyang were the secondary nodes, radiating to the surrounding three cities. Element flow connection strength was unbalanced, and only three city pairs were in the first level of the composite flow network. Network density was low-middle, and the network connection was weak. Xi’an was the primary central city of the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration with the strongest agglomeration and radiation capabilities; it could communicate with other cities without intermediate cities and was a bridge for other cities. Tongchuan, Pingliang, Shangluo, and Qingyang were at the edge of the urban agglomeration and had weak agglomeration, radiation, and intermediary capabilities. The inner cities of cohesive subgroups were closely related with weak connections between subgroups. The single-polarization of the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration was serious, and the single-core spatial structure centered on Xi’an had limited impact on the urban agglomeration. Development of small and medium-sized cities should be strengthened in the future.

Keywords: Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration; information flow; traffic flow; migration flow; spatial structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/3/563/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/3/563/ (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:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:563-:d:1080645

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

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