Hub Cities Research Articles

Spatial structure of urban agglomeration under the impact of high-speed railway construction: Based on the social network analysis

As a typical mode of modern transportation, high-speed rail (HSR) plays a key role in the formation and development of today's regional spatial pattern. Based on the panel data of 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration is taken as the research object and the social network analysis method is used by this research to explore the evolution of urban agglomeration spatial structure under the impact of HSR construction. The results show that: Firstly, HSR construction increases the average network density of urban agglomeration by 0.0487, which promotes the spatial connection density of urban agglomeration in a positive way. Secondly, HSR can improve the point centrality of moderately developed cities by 0.87, reduce the spatial connection of urban agglomeration’ dependence on core cities, and improve the urban agglomeration’ stability of spatial structure. Thirdly, HSR can make more cities enter the core subgroup faster, and improve the speed of urban agglomeration evolution to the optimized state. Based on this, the following suggestions are put forward: first, cities without HSR should strengthen urban construction in order to achieve interconnection with cities with HSR as soon as possible. Second, HSR construction should be taken as an opportunity to cultivate new regional hub cities. Third, the transportation planning department should strive to improve the HSR construction level of the peripheral cities so that they can share the effect of HSR construction.

STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN JAPAN’S URBAN SYSTEM FROM 1990 TO 2010

An urban system is a group of cities acting in close cooperation with one other. An examination of the factors of change in an urban system at the national scale remains to be done, given data limitations and research issues (e.g., scale, boundary). This study aims to clarify the spatiotemporal pattern of Japan’s urban system (JUS) and then to elucidate the characteristics of change and the related factors, based on an inter-regional travel survey conducted in Japan from 1990 to 2010, as well as numerous official censuses. The results demonstrate the entire system’s compactness, the dominance of the metropolises and the local system’s bipolarization under the hierarchical structure of JUS, with the establishment of hub cities and the development of infrastructure during the two decades from 1990 to 2010. Finally, this study explains the factors of change with consideration of socio-economic characteristics and inter-regional interaction.

A Synopsis of Incubators in Non-hub Cities in the Southeast United States

Business incubators are organisations that support the growth of small companies, including start-ups, by providing various resources and services. The aims of this article were to assess the characteristics of business incubators in non-hub cities located in Georgia and South Carolina and to describe the major differences between incubators located in non-hub and hub cities. We surveyed 5 non-hub incubators and visited and analysed qualitatively 10 incubators, 5 in hub cities and 5 in non-hub cities. Results showed that incubators in non-hub cities have less focus and less access to funding capital compared with incubators in hub cities. The implementation of a mesh network among incubators in non-hub cities may help sharing resources, know-how, talents and investments with the goal of being able to compete with incubators in hub cities. While currently incubators in non-hub cities cannot offer the same services to their members, they can still play an important role in giving the people in their communities an opportunity to start a new business, find jobs and increase their income. Business incubators in non-hub cities can ultimately positively impact the overall quality of life of the population they serve. Finally, we proposed that a focus on public health innovation may help incubators in non-hub cities to be successful.

High-Speed Rail Express Business Forecast Based on Improved Logit Model for Analyzing the Market Prospect of High-Speed Rail Express Business in Hub Cities

The mileage of China’s high-speed railway network has grown rapidly, and the total amount of express delivery nationwide has also increased rapidly. Firstly, the GM (1, 1) model is used to predict the express market demand of high-speed railway hub cities in 2025; then the share-sharing model is constructed to calculate the market share of high-speed rail transport using MATLAB software to predict the market demand of high-speed rail express; and finally based on forecast data. Analyze the market prospects and prospects of the high-speed rail express business in hub cities.

Full Domestic Supply Chains of Blue Virtual Water Flows Estimated for Major U.S. Cities

AbstractThrough the trade of products and services, cities indirectly depend on distant water sources to function, prosper, and grow. To fully account for indirect (virtual) water dependencies, virtual water flows need to be known along complex supply chains. To this purpose, we build a new environmental multiregional input–output model for U.S. regions. The model is used to quantify the domestic, blue virtual water flows and analyze the water footprints of 69 major U.S. cities. Our results show a large inequality in the urban water consumed for economic production: just 7 out of the 69 cities included in this study account for 35% of the U.S. national water footprint of production. This is due to the production of water‐intensive agricultural products in the metropolitan areas of western cities. The inequality reduces for the urban water footprint of consumption because, through the supply chains of industrialized food sectors, western virtual water is partially transferred to eastern cities as final demand. The water embodied in industrial products and services tends to be higher in western cities than in eastern cities; that is, the water embodied in food services could be several times higher in Los Angeles than in New York City. Trade hub cities attract large inflows of products which are mostly transformed for consumption elsewhere. Thus, the omission of product interdependencies within trade hub cities can increase by several times their water footprints of consumption. Overall, the proposed model is able to enhance subnational estimates of U.S. virtual water flows.

Network development of low-cost carriers in China's domestic market

This paper examines China's LCC market and assesses the network development patterns from a geographical perspective. Overall, a nationwide LCC network has been formed with each individual LCC focusing on their own markets with limited overlap to avoid cut-throat competition. Spring Airlines has developed an advanced network supported by its core bases including Shanghai in East China, Shijiazhuang in North China, Shenyang in Northeast China and Shenzhen in South China. China United has developed a network radiating from Beijing. West Air and Lucky Air seem to be developing a hub-and-spoke network that contributes to the tourism industry in West China. The LCC network is affected by seasonal variations, especially for the routes to tourism destinations such as Haikou, Sanya and Xiamen. Hub cities, however, experience less seasonal impact. This research also finds that routes between 600 and 1800 km account for a large proportion of the LCC markets. Aviation policy, local government's subsidization and the expansion of the high-speed rail network have helped shape the landscape of China's LCC sector.

Individual City-centered Networks for Sustainable Vitalization of Regional Hub Cities

Individual City-centered Networks for Sustainable Vitalization of Regional Hub Cities

A Novel Effective Indicator of Weighted Inter-City Human Mobility Networks to Estimate Economic Development

Estimation of economic development in advance is benefit to test the validity of economic policy or to take timely remedial measures for economic recession. Due to the inevitable connections between human mobility and economic status, estimation of economic trend in advance from easily observable big data in human mobility has the superiority of authenticity, timeliness, and convenience. However, high-precision quantitative relations between human mobility and economic growth remain an outstanding question. To this issue, we firstly analyzed and compared the general patterns of human mobility and economic development; then, a novel, simple, and effective hybrid human mobility indicator ( H H M I i ) of weighted human mobility networks was proposed to quantitatively estimate economic growth. H H M I i contained two parts, that is, the interaction volumes of a given city with all participation cities and only top hub cities, respectively. This implied that the economic growth of a city is affected by not only its own strength, but also the cooperation with hub cities. Several empirical experiments demonstrated that the proposed H H M I i had an exceedingly high estimation ability of economic growth, especially for the tertiary industry. Compared with other complex network indicators, H H M I i had a distinct advantage and its best accuracy reached 0.9543. These results can provide policy-making supports for inter-city sustainable coordinated development.

Evolution and Determinants of an Air Transport Network: A Case Study of the Chinese Main Air Transport Network

The Chinese main air transport network (CMATN) is the framework for air passenger transport in the country. This study uses complex networks and an econometric model to analyze CMATN’s evolution and determinants. In terms of overall network structure, the network has always shown small-world properties, with smaller average path lengths (2.06–2.15) and larger clustering coefficients (0.68–0.77), while its cumulative degree distribution follows an exponential function. City passenger volumes conform to the degree power law function, which means that the more destinations a city connects to, the higher its passenger traffic will be. In major hub cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, control power decreases, while Chengdu, Kunming, Chongqing, Xi’an, Urumqi, and other cities play an increasingly important role in CMATN. In terms of main route passenger volumes and formation, increases in GDP and tourism have had a promoting effect, while high-speed rail (HSR) poses a threat to overlapping routes. CMATN is primarily located in the central and eastern regions, focusing on China’s economy, tourism, and efficient HSR development. Although the competition from HSR affects the overall network structure of CMATN based on its influence on specific routes, we believe that the impact is limited due to the different transport attributes of the two networks. The research results of this study can become an information source for decision makers and provide a reference for air transport to seek sustainable development.

Gaseous and particulate pollutants in Lhasa, Tibet during 2013–2017: Spatial variability, temporal variations and implications

In recent decades, most big cities in China have experienced severe air pollution accompanied by rapid economic and social development. Analysis of measurements of air pollutants form a fundamental basis for understanding the characteristics of air pollution and are important references for policy-making. In this study, five-year measurements of air pollutants at 6 sites in Lhasa, a typical high altitude big city in southwestern China, were analyzed from January 2013 to December 2017. Air pollutants at all the 6 sites in Lhasa generally displayed similar patterns of both diurnal and monthly variations, indicating the mixed atmospheric environment and the overall effect of the meteorological conditions in the city. Spatially, the air pollutant concentrations at the 6 sites were generally characterized by high concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, PM10 and PM2.5 at urban sites and high O3 concentrations at suburban sites. In comparison with other provincial capital cities in China, Lhasa has low concentrations of air pollutants, except for O3, and thus, better air quality. Although Lhasa has experienced rapid urbanization and economic development, air pollution conditions have remained rather stable and even decreased slightly in term of particular air pollutants. We suggested that the relatively isolated location, low air pollutant emissions associated with its industrial structure and renewable energy consumption, and effective air pollution control measures, collectively contributed to the synchronous improvement of the economy and air quality in Lhasa. Such “Lhasa pattern” may serve as a positive example for other regional hub cities in China and beyond that experience socioeconomic development and simultaneously seek to improve air quality.

Region-county characteristic of spatial-temporal evolution and influencing factor on land use-related CO2 emissions in Chongqing of China, 1997–2015

The dependence of county industry on high CO2 emission industries makes it difficult to balance the development of county economy and CO2 emission reduction. Therefore, this article attempts to study on the spatial-temporal evolution and influencing factor on land use-related CO2 emissions at region-county level to promote county economy from CO2 source to CO2 sink. 9 regions and 38 counties in Chongqing of China were thus selected as study objects. Based on land use data, land use-related CO2 emissions were estimated using direct and indirect CO2 emission models for the period 1997–2015. On this basis, the space-time patterns were revealed from two scales of region and county. And the main factors influencing CO2 emissions according to land use were revealed based on Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) and geographic detector analysis (GDA), respectively. The results show that: 1) at regional scale, CO2 emissions of different regions all greatly improve in which southeastern ecological protection and development area showed the largest increase. Increases in per capita CO2 emissions in two-wing (suburban) areas are higher than those in downtown and surrounding-downtown areas. 2) at regional scale, the influences of various decomposed factors on the change of CO2 emissions fluctuate. The effect of population shows an insignificant influence on CO2 emissions. Economic development greatly influences CO2 emissions. Additionally, energy consumption shows a significant inhibitory effect on CO2 emissions while energy mix exhibits significant hysteresis. 3) at county scale, heavy CO2 emissions are concentrated in core urban areas; moderate and mild emissions occur mainly in the main urban expansion area, the region around the main urban areas, and in regional hub cities; low emissions are mainly concentrated in the Wuling mountainous area in southeast Chongqing and the Three Gorges Reservoir area in northeast Chongqing. 4) at county scale, the main influences on land use-related CO2 emissions are total energy consumption, per capita GDP, and urbanization rate. Minor influences include population size, proportion of secondary and tertiary industries, and proportion of land used for construction.

Spatial relationship of high-speed transportation construction and land-use efficiency and its mechanism: Case study of Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration

Land-use efficiency is low for the urban agglomeration of China. High-speed transportation construction has been an important factor driving land use change. It is critically important to explore the spatial relationship between the high-speed transportation superiority degree and land-use efficiency. We built a model to evaluate the benefits of convenient high-speed transportation using the relative density of highways and the distance from high-speed rail stations and airports as a metric. We used 42 counties of the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration as an example. Land-use efficiency was calculated by a DEA model with capital, labor, economic benefits and environmental benefits as input and output factors. We examined the spatial relationships between high-speed transport superiority degree and land-use efficiency and obtained the following results. First, there are significant spatial differences in the relationships between the high-speed transportation superiority degree and land-use efficiency. Taking the two major cities of Jinan and Qingdao as the hubs, the core surrounding counties show significant spatial relationship between land-use efficiency and the high-speed transportation superiority degree. Spatial correlation declines as the distance from the hubs increases. Land-use efficiency is less than high-speed transportation convenience in areas along the transportation trunks that are distant from the hub cities. Correlation is low in areas that are away from both hub cities and transportation trunk routes. Second, high-speed transportation has a positive relationship with land-use efficiency due to the mechanism of element agglomeration exogenous growth. Third, high-speed transportation facilitates the flow of goods, services and technologies between core cities and peripheral cities as space spillover (the hub effect). This alters the spatial pattern of regional land-use efficiency. Finally, the short-board effect caused by decreased high-speed transport construction can be balanced by highway construction and the proper node layouts of high-speed rail stations and airports, resulting in a well-balanced spatial pattern of land-use efficiency.

Increased infection severity in downstream cities in infectious disease transmission and tourists surveillance analysis

Infectious disease severely threatens human life. Human mobility and travel patterns influence the spread of infection between cities and countries. We find that the infection severity in downstream cities during outbreaks is related to transmission rate, recovery rate, travel rate, travel duration and the average number of person-to-person contacts per day. The peak value of the infected population in downstream cities is slightly higher than that in source cities. However, as the number of cities increases, the severity increase percentage during outbreaks between end and source cities is constant. The surveillance of important nodes connecting cities, such as airports and train stations, can help delay the occurrence time of infection outbreaks. The city-entry surveillance of hub cities is not only useful to these cities, but also to cities that are strongly connected (i.e., have a high travel rate) to them. The city-exit surveillance of hub cities contributes to other downstream cities, but only slightly to itself. Surveillance conducted in hub cities is highly efficient in controlling infection transmission. Only strengthening the individual immunity of frequent travellers is not efficient for infection control. However, reducing the number of person-to-person contacts per day effectively limits the spread of infection.

Communism or Neo-Feudalism?

In her article, Jodi Dean formulates the hypothesis that we are witnesses to a regressive transformation of the capitalistic historical formation into something new, which can be tentatively called neo-feudalism. Capitalism is no longer valorizing itself, that is, reproducing its social conditions and fostering certain new conditions; it is becoming less oriented toward the organization of labor and more inclined to coercion and direct domination. A reflexivization of capitalism is taking place in its attitudes toward supremacy, and the latter is becoming more explicit. Dean indicates the four main tendencies of neo-feudalization: parcellation (fragmentation but reinforcement) of sovereignty; a new quasi-class hierarchy (an exponential increase in inequality); geographic polarization between megalopolises and the provinces or hinterlands (not only along the postcolonial North-South axis, but between hub cities and small cities within the developed countries); and increasing insecurity and apocalyptic fantasies (from which citizens shield themselves with drugs). This quartet of tendencies strikingly resembles the central features of the European Middle Ages, but this time they are taking quite different social and technological forms. Communicative capitalism makes citizens entirely dependent on the platforms where they are not merely free workers but also passive providers of data. If Dean’s hypothesis is correct, then such palliative means of struggle against inequality as democracy and free elections will not work any longer. The author for-mulates the alternative between communism and feudalism and claims that, in a neo-feudal situation, the struggle for communism would by familiar stages become easier as oppression and the prerequisites for communism become more evident.

Methodology Development to Locate Hydrogen Stations for the Initial Deployment Stage

Hydrogen station deployment needs to be progressed in response to the introduction of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) to the commercial market. Since resources allocated for deployment are limited for either private companies who wish to install stations and governments who provide subsidies, efficient station allocation should be cognizant of the service of potential customers. Based on a literature review, the results of a social survey and data analysis, p-median is chosen to find optimum locations for hydrogen stations. Location and the amount on potential demand for FCV’s in the early stage of deployment is estimated by a regression model. The result of GIS analysis for both 2020 and 2025 using p-median implies the importance of covering regional hub cities (such as prefectural capital cities) as well as metropolises. The coverage rate of potential FCV demand is around 60% at the national level, and exceeds 70 to 80 percent when limited to urban areas for the 400-station allocation. The geographical tendency of station locations allocated by the developed methodology provides guidance for hydrogen station location practice.

Web surfers are web spenders: finding the truth of online shopping

E-retailers should know about online expenditure habits of consumers to maintain their profits. In this context, current study presents results of a web survey among snowball sample of 308 online shoppers from three e-commerce hub cities of India. Results indicate significant associations between annual online expenditure and webographic factors like computer experience, internet experience, ability to use internet, office as access location, tablet as access device and internet usage level. Associations were also found between the highest amount spent in single transaction and webographic factors like internet experience, office and public place as access location, tablet and mobile phone as access device and internet usage level. Consequent chi-square post-hoc test via standard residual method determined that, categories with high internet experience under high online expenditure and high single transaction amount contributes significantly to omnibus chi-square statistics.

지역 거점도시 식별 및 상호작용에 따른 영향권역 설정에 관한 연구

While the competitiveness of small and medium sized cities has become important for balanced development at the national scale, they have experienced continuous decline in population and employment, particularly those in non-capital regions. In addition, some of small and medium sized cities have been classified into shrinking cities that have declined due to their long-term structural reasons. To address these issues, a regional approach, by which a hub city and its surrounding small and medium sized cities can collaborate has been suggested. Given this background, the purpose of this study is to identify and delineate hub cities and their impact areas by using travel data as a functional network index. This study uses a centrality index to identify the hub cities of small and medium sized cities and Markov-chain model and cluster analysis to delineate regional boundaries. The mean first passage time (MFPT) generated from the Markov-chain model can be interpreted as functional distance of each region. The study suggests a methodological approach delineating the boundaries of regions incorporating functional relationships of hub cities and their impact areas, and provides 59 hub cities and their impact areas. The results also provide policy implications for regional spatial planning that addresses appropriate planning boundaries of regions for enhancing the economic competitiveness of small and medium sized cities and ensuring services for shrinking cities.

A study of the policy at migration and settlement in regional hub cities and dweller's characteristics

A study of the policy at migration and settlement in regional hub cities and dweller's characteristics

Evaluating neighborhood structures for modeling intercity diffusion of large-scale dengue epidemics

BackgroundDengue fever is a vector-borne infectious disease that is transmitted by contact between vector mosquitoes and susceptible hosts. The literature has addressed the issue on quantifying the effect of individual mobility on dengue transmission. However, there are methodological concerns in the spatial regression model configuration for examining the effect of intercity-scale human mobility on dengue diffusion. The purposes of the study are to investigate the influence of neighborhood structures on intercity epidemic progression from pre-epidemic to epidemic periods and to compare definitions of different neighborhood structures for interpreting the spread of dengue epidemics.MethodsWe proposed a framework for assessing the effect of model configurations on dengue incidence in 2014 and 2015, which were the most severe outbreaks in 70 years in Taiwan. Compared with the conventional model configuration in spatial regression analysis, our proposed model used a radiation model, which reflects population flow between townships, as a spatial weight to capture the structure of human mobility.ResultsThe results of our model demonstrate better model fitting performance, indicating that the structure of human mobility has better explanatory power in dengue diffusion than the geometric structure of administration boundaries and geographic distance between centroids of cities. We also identified spatial–temporal hierarchy of dengue diffusion: dengue incidence would be influenced by its immediate neighboring townships during pre-epidemic and epidemic periods, and also with more distant neighbors (based on mobility) in pre-epidemic periods.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the structure of population mobility could more reasonably capture urban-to-urban interactions, which implies that the hub cities could be a “bridge” for large-scale transmission and make townships that immediately connect to hub cities more vulnerable to dengue epidemics.

The evolving structure of the Southeast Asian air transport network through the lens of complex networks, 1979–2012

This paper presents a novel approach to investigating and understanding the evolving structure of the Southeast Asian air transport network (SAAN) over the period 1979–2012. Our approach captures the main topological and spatial changes from a complex network perspective. We find that the SAAN combines a relatively stable topological structure with a changing multilayered geographical structure. Statistical analysis indicates that the SAAN is a scale-free network with an increasing number of hub cities and has been characterized by small-world properties since 1996. Furthermore, the SAAN exhibits a recently intensified disassortative mixing pattern, suggesting an increasing dependence of small cities on hub-and-spoke configuration for better accessibility. A decomposition analysis is used to disaggregate the SAAN into a hierarchical core-bridge-periphery structure. The core layer consists of capital cities, the most economic vibrant secondary cities, and tourist destinations. This core layer is also densely interconnected with its center of gravity moving towards the north. The periphery layer, comprised of cities in remote areas, sustains a low significance with declining internal connectivity despite a rising number of cities being connected. The bridge layer lies in between both extremes, and is characterized by a high volatility over time. The connections and passengers between different layers increase, especially those between core and bridge after 1996. In our discussion, we trace these changes back to a series of socio-economic and politico-institutional dynamics in Southeast Asia.