Transition of Socio-Demographic Characteristics in Urban Areas by Applying a Topic Model to Small Area Units

Makoto Tsukai, Satoko Ohno and Yuta Tsukano
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Makoto Tsukai: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Applied Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan
Satoko Ohno: Independent Researcher, Kochi 780-0850, Japan
Yuta Tsukano: Kansai Airports, 1, Sensyu-Kuko-Kita, Izumisano 549-8501, Japan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Under the depopulation society in Japan, the hollowing out and suburbanization of urban areas have become very serious problems, but an appropriate analytical tool for land use transition has not yet been proposed. This study analyzes the transitions in socio-demographic characteristics of small area units in the Fukuoka and Kitakyushu metropolitan areas by applying a topic model to geographical data. Plotting the topic shares on a map clarified the spatial distribution of topics, and the transitions between two cross-sections were analyzed along with other geographical characteristics. Our empirical study showed that the topic model could clearly and quantitatively describe the transitions between two cross-sections of these urban areas. The topic model revealed that the urban center of the Fukuoka metropolitan area was expanding, while the urban center of the Kitakyushu metropolitan area was shrinking. In suburban areas, both metropolitan areas had increasing low-density residential and commercial land use. In the Kitakyushu metropolitan area, this transition could seriously threaten the sustainability of land use, since the total population had significantly decreased.

Keywords: suburbanization; land use characteristics; transition; topic model; local city in Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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