Abstract
Urban commercial districts (UCDs) are the concentrated areas for commercial activities in a city, which provide shopping, leisure, business, and other functions. Urban planners usually face problems in how to plan and design UCDs. The layout of UCDs should not only be appropriately concentrated to realize economic benefits, but should also be properly dispersed to accommodate the distribution of the population. Using Beijing as a case study, this study conducted research into UCDs from a microscopic perspective by utilizing open source big data. A recognition and classification method of UCDs was proposed based on the data of POI and road networks. The proposed model combines Huff’s model and the Voronoi method to analyze how various UCDs should be distributed within a city according to the spatial pattern of the population. The results showed that different kinds of UCDs had different spatial distribution features. Problems were also found, for example, UCDs on the urban outskirts served a large population; there were limitations to the spatial distribution of UCDs in the downtown area; and there was incongruity between the UCD types and the population layout. Based on these findings, suggestions regarding the optimization of the urban commercial spatial structure were also put forward.
Highlights
With rapid economic development, cities worldwide are being transformed from a production type to a consumption type due to the emergence of commerce and service industries as the major incentives for advances in urban economy
This study identified and classified urban commercial districts (UCDs) in Beijing by utilizing publicly available big data (Point of Interest, Open Street Map, etc.), conducting a microscopic analysis of the population size of the housing block where the majority of urban residents live, and, analyzing the trading areas of various UCDs in the city, thereby yielding insights into the optimization of the urban commercial structure
Regarding the trading area size of the dietary and cultural UCDs, this paper found that those located near Third Ring Road and Fourth Ring Road were small
Summary
Cities worldwide are being transformed from a production type to a consumption type due to the emergence of commerce and service industries as the major incentives for advances in urban economy. The rapidly evolving commerce and service industries have made urban commercial districts (UCDs) the most active space in the city. UCDs are no longer just auxiliary service facilities in a city, but have become the most active functional districts and the growth engines of a city, as they promote service infrastructure development, regional economic growth, and urbanization, thereby exerting significant influence on the urban economy, society, and culture [1]. How to adapt the urban commercial structure to the transformation of the economy and society and how to coordinate the needs of urban residents as well as promote the healthy and orderly development of cities are important issues faced by urban geographers and urban planning scholars. Beijing is a suitable case study for the analysis of the urban commercial spatial structure and for further analyzing the relationship between the distribution of UCDs and population distribution
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