The Urban Development Potential in Major Bay Areas: A Combined Hierarchical and Entropy-Based Evaluation

Liyuan Zhang and Yanpeng Jiang ()
Additional contact information
Liyuan Zhang: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Yanpeng Jiang: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: The coastal regions of major bay areas—including San Francisco, Tokyo, New York, Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao, and Hangzhou—are important centers of economic and social growth due to their strategic location, resources, and dynamic economies. However, the significant development disparities between the central cities and surrounding areas, as well as the challenges of climate change, highlight the need for a comprehensive assessment of their development potential. The aim of this study is to find out which cities have the strongest development potential and what the main factors influencing the results are. To address this research question, we use a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Entropy Weight Method (EWM) to systematically assess the development potential of 63 cities in five bay area regions and explore the mechanisms that influence it. The principal component analysis (PCA) also examines the global networking and sustainability mechanisms. The results show that Shenzhen and Shanghai lead in development potential due to strong institutional frameworks and global connectivity, but significant imbalances remain in the bay areas. Key contributors to sustainability and connectivity include air passenger traffic, public libraries, and port handling, while traditional economic metrics such as GDP growth show limited impact. These findings underscore the importance of prioritizing urban livability, resource circulation, and infrastructure over traditional economic indicators for sustainability and provide actionable insights for policy makers to promote balanced and sustainable development in bay area cities.

Keywords: bay areas; urban development potential; analytic hierarchy process; entropy weight method; principal component analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/3/475/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/3/475/ (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:14:y:2025:i:3:p:475-:d:1599251

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 ().