Simulating the urban spatial structure with spatial interaction: A case study of urban polycentricity under different scenarios

Cai Wu,Duncan Smith,Mingshu Wang

doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101677

Cai Wu, Duncan Smith + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101677

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Abstract

Polycentric urban development is gaining momentum in both scholarly research and real-life practice. This brings new demand for planning support systems to simulate and analyse the urban spatial structure in terms of polycentricity under various urban policy scenarios. With the help of emerging urban data, urban simulation techniques, and network science, this study proposes a workflow to simulate the urban spatial structure with spatial interaction as a part of the planning support system. Using Singapore as a case study, this study has explored the resulting urban spatial structure with four employment distribution strategies. The results suggest that planning practices impact urban spatial structure and its spatial interaction by redistributing urban morphological elements, such as employment in this study. Also, our results show that the physical urban spatial structure and spatial interaction are closely related. These results reinforce the role of urban planning practice to achieve a more sustainable and coherent urban built environment. Through this empirical evidence, our workflow exemplifies the potential of the planning support system to help urban planners and governments understand their urban policy regarding urban polycentricity.

Highlights

With the rapid urbanisation process and the emergence of megacities worldwide, the cities’ management and planning authorities face increasing challenges from a wide variety of urban issues
The first result regarding the dynamic urban spatial structure is the urban communities detected from the spatial interaction
We have explored how these spatial interactions could change with different commercial floor space allocation scenarios across Singapore; it predicted how commercial floor space allocation would affect the dy namic urban structure

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid urbanisation process and the emergence of megacities worldwide, the cities’ management and planning authorities face increasing challenges from a wide variety of urban issues. The urban spatial structure study has become an essential part of the scientific process to understand and plan the urban built environ ment, gaining popularity in academic research (Bertaud, 2004; Meijers, 2008; Münter & Volgmann, 2020; van Meeteren, Poorthuis, Derudder, & Witlox, 2015). Scholars use spatial interaction, such as the flow of cash or human capital, to represent the spatial interactions between the different part of the city as the dynamics of urban spatial structure (Chen, Arribas-Bel, & Singleton, 2019; Gao, 2015; Rey et al, 2011). We propose a new workflow to simulate urban spatial structure with spatial interaction data. Using polycentricity as the indicator for urban spatial structure, we demon strate this workflow by simulating spatial interaction and the resulting urban spatial structure under different urban scenarios

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