Abstract
By shortening the transportation time between cities, high-speed rail shortens the spatial distance between cities and exerts a far-reaching influence on urban agglomerations’ spatial structures. In order to explore the influence of high-speed rail on the spatial reconstruction of an urban agglomeration in western China, this paper employs fractal theory to compare and analyze the spatial structure evolution of the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration in western China before and after the opening of a high-speed railway. The results show that after the completion of the high-speed railway, the intercity accessibility is improved. The Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration’s spatial distribution shows a decreasing density from the central city to the surrounding areas. Furthermore, the urban system presents a trend of an agglomeration distribution. Therefore, strengthening the construction of high-speed rail channels between primary and medium-sized cities, as well as accelerating the construction of intercity railway networks and rapid transportation systems based on high-speed rail cities, would help develop urban agglomerations in western China.
Highlights
In recent years, infrastructure construction mainly based on the high-speed railway has led to urban form transformation
Studies have shown that the primary beneficiaries of constructing the high-speed railway in Europe in the 20th century are the urban agglomerations covered by the high-speed railway network [4]
In order to promote the development of a western urban agglomeration more effectively, this paper studies the spatial reconstruction of the western urban agglomeration from the perspective of high-speed railway construction
Summary
Infrastructure construction mainly based on the high-speed railway has led to urban form transformation. The accessibility improvement brought by the construction of high-speed railway attracts more people to move out of big cities’ core area to the periphery of urban agglomerations. It promotes the more even distribution of the population [5]. Other scholars believe that the polarization and equilibrium effects of constructing the high-speed rail network on the reshaping of regional and urban temporal and spatial relationships exist simultaneously. The evaluation of these two effects should consider the differences in the specific research areas and research scales. While on the micro-scale, the two effects of equilibrium and polarization exist simultaneously [8]
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