The Evolution and Growth Patterns of the Road Network in a Medium-Sized Developing City: A Historical Investigation of Changchun, China, from 1912 to 2017

Shiguang Wang, Dexin Yu, Mei-Po Kwan, Huxing Zhou, Yongxing Li and Hongzhi Miao
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Shiguang Wang: School of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Dexin Yu: School of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Mei-Po Kwan: Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Huxing Zhou: School of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Yongxing Li: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Hongzhi Miao: School of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: Understanding the evolution and growth patterns of urban road networks helps to design an efficient and sustainable transport network. The paper proposed a general study framework and analytical workflow based on network theory that could be applied to almost any city to analyze the temporal evolution of road networks. The main tasks follow three steps: vector road network drawing, topology graph generation, and measure classification. Considering data availability and the limitations of existing studies, we took Changchun, China, a middle-sized developing city that is seldom reported in existing studies, as the study area. The research results of Changchun (1912–2017) show the road networks sprawled and densified over time, and the evolution patterns depend on the historical periods and urban planning modes. The evolution of network scales exhibits significant correlation; the population in the city is well correlated with the total road length and car ownership. Each network index also presents specific rules. All road networks are small-world networks, and the arterial roads have been consistent over time; however, the core area changes within the adjacent range but is generally far from the old city. More importantly, we found the correlation between structure and function of the urban road networks in terms of the temporal evolution. However, the temporal evolution pattern shows the correlation varies over time or planning modes, which had not been reported

Keywords: urban road network; evolution pattern; network theory; medium-sized city; structure and function. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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