Reconsideration on the Analytical and Interpretational Method for the Urban Retailing Structure: Using a Case of Hamamatsu City

Abstract

There seems to be two shortcomings in the recently published papers on the so called “integrated models” of intra-urban retailing structures in Japan. Firstly, the division and typology of retailing areas, which is largely inspired by the hierarchical division of central places, hardly gives any proper image which fits for our real experience. Secondly, since the division of distribution types of retailings is not enough logical, the interpretation on the factors of retailing types scarcely gives so well-founded understanding. Owing to these, areal characteristics of retailings which should be premise for the objective interpretation of factors are not so clear, and explanation on the urban retailing areas, which should be based on one's real experience, is inclined to mechanistic. In this paper, the authors reconsider these problems, and propose an improved method and attempt to make more realistic interpretation on intra-urban retailing stracture, using the data collected from the urbanized area of Hamamatsu City (Fig. 2) in the central Japan.The process of analysis is as follows. (1) 200m×200m quadratatic meshes are created over the urbanized area and the number of outlets of each cell by each retailing types is counted. (2) These numbers are adjusted by the shifting average method (Fig. 1), and 302 cells with ten and over outlets are taken for the following analysis. (3) The cells are aggregated into five equidistance concentric zones, and the specialization indices for each zone and for each retailing are worked out. (4) The logically exlusive category of the distribution pattern of intra-urban retailings are established (shown below):(5) Using these categories and the specialized patterns, the distribution types of each retailing are judged.The geographical matrix of the outlet numbers with 302 quadrats×41 retailings obtained from (2) are subjected for the factor analysis, and four factors with clear meanings—urban center oriented, peripheral oriented, urban arterial oriented, and unusually specialized retailings—are extracted. Then, using the factor scores of these four factors, the cluster analysis is carried out. Through the interpretation based on the real practical experience, each clusters can be explained as following seven retaling areas (Fig. 4): urban center oriented type (K, L), specialized type on high-class restaurants and lodging facilities adjacent to CBD and terminal (M), neighborhood type in densely inhabitated old inner town (N), old arterial type on the outskirts of inner area (O), new suburban arterial type (P), suburban arterial type specialized in the automobile shops and big shopping centers (Q), suburban neighborhood type (R).