Urban Hierarchy Research Articles

Forty years of internal migration in Australian regions: a sequence analysis of net migration, turnover, and retention

ABSTRACT Australia is one of the most migratory countries in the world, yet as internal migrants typically represent only a small proportion of the population, the impact of stayers and transient populations need to be considered to create a fuller picture of regional population dynamics. To that end, this paper analyses net migration, population turnover, and population retention for 69 Australian regions from 1976 to 2016. Applying sequence analysis to a temporally-consistent framework, we find that regions follow four ideal-typical trajectories: 1) escalator regions with transient populations, 2) amenity destinations with fading attractiveness, 3) regions at risk of terminal decline, and 4) sticky regions. This classification in part follows the urban hierarchy while unveiling some important regional differences, highlighting the utility of the long-term multi-dimensional framework developed in this paper. This approach offers policymakers a new capacity to measure and monitor changes in internal migration and population dynamics to design and deploy more targeted regional policies.

The distribution of national urban hierarchies of connectivity within global city networks

AbstractThis paper demonstrates how the national urban hierarchies can be understood through the lens of connectivity within globally scaled economic networks. We first examine the global city network structure using ak‐core decomposition method. Values ofk‐coreness are then used to understand the distribution of global connectivity within national urban systems. This is observed through a measure of statistical dispersion applied to a novel global dataset of 68,602 weighted headquarter‐subsidiary relations of 31,371 firms linking 4181 cities collected in 2019. Our results confirm the existence of a hierarchical core–periphery structure at a global scale, yet reveal varying degrees of hierarchy at a national scale. At a national scale, single‐core, double‐core or multi‐core network structures characterize the way in which national and global city networks intersect, indicating that there is a distinction between global cities as the core and urban‐systems‐as‐networks that connect nations to the global economy.

A trade hierarchy of cities based on transport cost thresholds

ABSTRACT Empirical evidence has been lacking to explain trade agglomerations within countries. Starting with a novel micro-database of road freight shipments between Spanish municipalities for the period 2003–07, we break down city (municipal) trade flows into the extensive and intensive margins and assess trade frictions and trade concentration relying on a unique generalized transport cost measure and three internal borders: NUTS-5 (municipal), NUTS-3 (provincial) and NUTS-2 (regional). We find a stark accumulation of trade flows up to a transport cost value of €189 (approximately 170 km) and conclude that this high density is not due to administrative borders effects but to significant changes in the trade-to-transport costs relationship. To support this hypothesis, we propose and conduct an endogenous Chow test to identify significant thresholds at which trade flows change structurally with transport costs. These breakpoints allow us to split the sample when controlling for internal borders, and to define trade market areas corresponding to specific transport costs that consistently reveal an urban hierarchy of cities. The results provide clear evidence with which to corroborate the predictions of Central Place Theory.

The Gender Gap Index in an upcoming urbanized society: A case study of Sehore Municipal Council, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract Though urbanization promotes development, the gender gap is being perceived in many socio-economic aspects, in the Indian urban economic scenario. With a 31.16% urban population (in 2011), India has experienced a lopsided development of its urban hierarchy in favour of metropolitan growth which accommodates 42.31% of the total urban population. For various socioeconomic reasons it has a declining female economic participation rate. Sehore M.C. (Madhya Pradesh), an upcoming Class I city, located near the metropolitan cities of Bhopal and Indore, is showing perceptible changes in female work participation, indicating a potential for development in Sehore M.C. along with other smaller cities in Madhya Pradesh. Based on the methodology for the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI, WEF 2018), the ward wise figures for Sehore M.C. for the partly adopted subindices of Survival, Social, and Economic Participation were calculated using local area indicators from standard international and national agencies to bring out the inter-ward variations in gender gap for Sehore M.C.. Spatial mapping of GGI showed that approximately 91% of wards belonged to the high category but 9% of wards were from the medium category. Suggestions for the promotion of gender parity in the city are made for the overall empowerment of females in Sehore M.C. within the constraints of an urban economic scenario.

The right to urban public space and aesthetic dissensus for democratic citizenship

In the last three decades, across the world, there have emerged mass movements, uprisings and revolts targeting neo-liberal global capitalism and its radical reorganization of urban hierarchies. As a result, cities have become the central stage for sociopolitical struggles. While the scholarship on new social movements has recognized the aesthetic potential of political organizing since the beginning of the anti-globalization movement in 1999, new approaches are needed to understand the aesthetic dissensus of contemporary activism within the urban space. This article theorizes aesthetics as a potentially radicalizing force in proposing a democratic citizenship in the city. Indebted to the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, James Holston, Mark Purcell and Jacques Rancière, it discusses the new synthesis of political and aesthetic forms, action and experience in urban social movement praxis. Taking Gezi Park resistance in Turkey (2013) as a case study, it seeks to understand the relationship of activist aesthetics to changing practices and conceptions of citizenship.

Integrated Town Development Plan: Kurduwadi

The nature and economic development of Indian urbanization is characterized by metropolitan domination and polarization. The country's total population increased from 361 million in 1951 to 1,027 million in 2001, while the urban population increased from 62 million to 285 million during the same period. From 23 megacities in 1991 to 35 in 2001, the number has increased considerably. Therefore, it is clear that there is a clear movement towards large cities, possibly as a result of a lack of employment opportunities in small and medium cities and a deficient urban infrastructure. In 1979, the centrally supported scheme for the integrated development of small and medium cities (IDSMT) began and continued through 2004-05 and was incorporated into the UIDSSMT scheme in December 2005. It is important to invest in the development of small urban centers in order to reduce migration to large cities as well as to support the growth of surrounding rural areas. Small and medium towns are generally viewed as a means of balancing urban hierarchy and reducing pressure on primate cities, moderate spatial inequality, and foster factors that may assist in reversing the trend. Kurduwadi city is one of them, such as improper or uncertain use of available land, rising unemployment and migration to cities, unsatisfactory development plans to improve urban development. In this context, through integrated planning, efforts have been measured to obtain the resources needed to achieve each goal and improve strategy. Also by allowing institutions to plan and collaborate in departments, they can create efficiency and pursue new opportunities and help reduce migration to nearby large and metropolitan cities by strengthening the Kurduwadi towns as regional growth centers. Establishing complementary links between nearby villages, towns and cities will create a harmonious settlement pattern. An integrated development plan for the Kurduwadi town reduces some of the ideological concerns and working uncertainties emerging around this initiative through this study. The assessment of integrated town development may be appropriate to determine the future orientation and guidelines for Kurduwadi town.

Mapping International Cooperation between European Cities: A Network Analysis of the Interreg C and Urbact Programs

This paper focuses on international cooperation between European cities. We analyse the Urbact and Interreg C cooperation programs from 2000 to 2019, extracting data from the website “keep.eu” which collates European cooperation programs financed by the European cohesion policy. On one hand, we transform them into flow matrices and, on the other hand, we present them according to their topics. The results show that the cooperation network is both a small-world and a scale-free network structured on a core-periphery mode-land organised by central cities. From a spatial and political perspective, these central cities are often secondary cities. The concept of rescaling supports the idea that those cities use cooperation to counter their subordinate position in the European urban hierarchy. Network and thematics assessment show that Interreg C and Urbact are two different cooperation types. Analysis of the links reveals that most cooperation ties are ephemeral, but some links are more intense. Urban development and economic development are major thematics, and the growing importance of green development is also relevant.

Determinants and Influence of Drivers of Growth in the Emerging Urban System of Vandeikya Local Government Region of Benue State, Nigeria

Most studies on urban system tend to focus more on bigger cities and towns at the upper levels of national and global urban hierarchies neglecting the emerging urban system at the lower levels in the hierarchy. This study set out to determines and assesses the influence of drivers of growth in the emerging urban systems of Vandeikya local government region of Nigeria. Data was collected on 52 central place functions in 67 settlements through physical enumeration and analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component analysis. The result of the study identified four drivers of growth within settlements in the emerging urban system accounting for 86.836% of the total variance within the data set. The result also shows that level of influence of the four drivers of growth vary among settlements in the study area; and the availability of non-agricultural functions constitute these drivers of growth and catalyst for transforming the rural settlements into urban in the study area. However, there is wide development gap among these set of settlements as observed by the wide range of scores associated with each components. Based on the findings, the study recommends development planning that will ensure a balanced and coordinated socio-economic development of the region.

The distribution of city sizes in Turkey: A failure of Zipf’s law due to concavity

AbstractThe linearity of the distribution of city sizes is often assumed in the existing literature. Although different functional forms were tried, almost all of them impose a certain functional shape. In this study, we investigate the urban hierarchy and Zipf’s law using data for 973 Turkish subprovincial cities in 2019. We contribute to the literature in several ways. We force no definite functional form to observe the natural shape and employ nonparametric and quadratic regressions. We incorporate formal procedures of spatial dependence in regression models. We demonstrate that the linear model overestimates the Pareto exponent for small cities and underestimates it for bigger cities. We show that city sizes are unevenly distributed in Turkey. The rank–size rule is not valid in Turkey, either above or below a certain city‐size truncation level. Thus, the Pareto exponent estimated from the linear model is not a reliable indicator as quadratic regressions perform much better.

Potential accessibility models and planning policy design in Romania: Are the fixed model’s parameters leading to wrong interpretations?

This paper explores the differences between two different types of potential accessibility models applied to the urban system of Romania, using demographic data from 2015. The first model is based on a classical formalization of the potential accessibility function, while the second one focuses on the introduction of variable parameters in the model’s equation. When mapping the results, one will found that the models we investigated respond to different needs and visions in spatial planning. The alternative formalization provides a frame for a more in-depth analysis of the transportation endowment, at regional scale, together with an assessment of the urban systems hierarchy. The study highlights the fragility of the local urban systems gravitating around small cities, placed in precarious accessibility situations. The results can be used for a better assessment of the policy priorities, both from the perspective of spatial planning and sustainable development.

Innovation agglomeration and urban hierarchy: evidence from Chinese cities

ABSTRACT Innovation agglomeration leads to changes in the hierarchical structure of innovation, driving regional economic development. We establish a general equilibrium framework for urban innovation, that is to say, the process of production in a city can be divided into the knowledge production sector and final goods production sector. By this we explain the positive matching relationship between innovation agglomeration and a city’s position in the urban hierarchy (herein called urban tier). Then we empirically analyse 286 prefecture level Chinese cities to evaluate the impact of urban tier on innovation agglomeration using a two-way fixed effect model. To reveal the nonlinear relationship between urban hierarchy and innovation agglomeration, panel quantile and threshold regression models were also used. The main results show that: (1) The spatial structure of innovation in Chinese cities is consistent with the urban tier, and the urban tier plays a significant role in promoting innovation agglomeration. (2) Heterogeneous spatial structures of innovation among urban tiers are reflected in the higher agglomeration of innovation resources in high-tier cities, and the impact of city scale on innovation agglomeration is nonlinear. When the city scale reaches a certain threshold value, its impact on innovation agglomeration is significantly strengthened.

Moving down the urban hierarchy: Turning point of China’s internal migration caused by age structure and hukou system

Internal migration is critically important in China, where the fertility rate is declining and international immigration is under strict control. This study explores the massive population movement in China, examines the migration pattern of non- hukou migrants, 2010–2015 and 2014–2015 migration patterns through the urban hierarchy of the urban system using migration trajectories derived from the 2015 One Percent Population Sample Survey. Results reveal an emerging reversal from a predominantly upward pattern (e.g. most of the net flows move to high-level cities) to a downward one (e.g. from super-large/extra-large cities to large cities) in the recent migration trend. Regional disparities are significant. An upward and eastward tendency still dominates in the western, central and northeastern regions, whereas a downward and decentralised tendency has been initiated in the eastern region. The causes for the structural change include common factors found in developed countries, such as the influence of age and life courses. The age structure of China’s population caused by the ‘one-child’ policy weakened the upward momentum and led to a strengthening downward trend in the current migration pattern. The contextual and institutional factor hukou also has a significant effect on people’s migration directions. Hukou attracts people to move up or down the hierarchy to their registered place or where they can acquire registration. The characteristics of registered migrants reflect the different criteria of cities in granting hukou.

Universality in Urban Growth

In the era of rapid urbanization, understanding the mechanism of urban growth is critical to a better future of humanity. Models for urban growth can prepare policy makers to address the economic and social changes in their growing cities. Over the last decades, the physics of cities has revealed the mechanisms of urban growth from the universal characteristics that are largely observed in the main pillars of cities: function, shape and size. This article introduces the theoretical frameworks - urban scaling, fractal geometry and Zipf’s law-for universality in the function, shape and size of cities. In addition, we review the recent findings for a unified model of urban growth, including recapitulation, hierarchy and migrations.

Acceptability of sustainable mobility policies under a post-COVID-19 scenario. Evidence from Spain.

The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly modified the lifestyle of a large portion of the population around the world. This pandemic is also the first one in decades that has severely impacted many countries of the Global North. Governments have had to adopt wide-scope and desperate measures to face the abnormal situation and to reduce the stress of their health care systems. These measures have been based on reducing the physical-social interaction and mobility (closing schools and some economic activities, or fostering telework, among others), increasing the physical distance between people, and recommending washing hands frequently and wearing masks. Thus, the COVID-19 may change many habits of people and the ways we interact with others after the current pandemic. It would also imply changes in mobility habits. Many questions arise about the willingness and acceptability of changes, and who would have to impulse them and how. This paper aims to study and understand individuals' acceptability towards a set of generic measures related to urban mobility in Spain, one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, we conducted an online survey during the lockdown in Spring (2020). More than 75% of respondents would accept restrictions on car use after the return to normal, and more than 90% agree on increasing the space for pedestrians and cyclists on streets. Furthermore, 75% of respondents would change the primary transport mode towards a more sustainable transport mode if it would decrease the incidence or severity of the COVID-19. These results show that the respondents are overall in favor of a new urban hierarchy that gives more importance to the most sustainable modes, reducing the public space devoted to the car, which means the possibility of turning the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to make Spanish cities more sustainable.

A Google Street View analysis of gentrification: a case study of one census tract in Northside, Cincinnati, USA

Since the 1990s, the gentrification process in the U.S. has diffused down the urban hierarchy and to neighborhoods further from downtown. This paper focuses on one census tract in the inner-ring suburbs of one mid-sized city in the U.S. undergoing gentrification between 2000 and 2016. While the use of census data to measure gentrification has been around for decades, a new tool, Google Street View, can now supplement the measurement of gentrification. Using census data, Google Street View imagery, and Hwang’s (Gentrification, race, and immigration in the changing American city, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2015) gentrification index, I document change in the built environment of the neighborhood of Northside (Tract 74) in the city of Cincinnati. This tract’s accessible location to downtown Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati/Hospital Complex as well as the availability of high-quality, low-cost housing made it a focal point for individual, corporate, and government investment after 2000. By 2014/16, that investment had transformed the built environment of Tract 74. There is no evidence that the Great Recession slowed the gentrification process as Tract 74 transitioned from disinvested in 2011 to early stage gentrification by 2014/16.

Do households prefer to move up or down the urban hierarchy during an economic crisis?

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between adverse economic circumstances and the desire of Dutch households to move up or down the urban hierarchy. We apply three consecutive waves of the Dutch Housing Demand Survey (WoON) in a repeated cross-section setting, with data collected at the time of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and its aftermath. We find that households desire to move down the urban hierarchy during the volatile and uncertain periods following the GFC. This is a surprising result, given that urban areas are generally considered more opportunity rich. In order to uncover the mechanisms driving this result, we considered the impact of the economic circumstances on the general willingness to move and on the underlying motives. We find that willingness to move increased when the adverse economic consequences of the GFC hit Dutch households. Further, it appears that this willingness to move is only partially related to work. Besides work, desires to move for health, education, vicinity to family and friends, and reasons related to the dwelling, also become more prevalent during the aftermath of the GFC as well. This heterogeneity in impacts and consequences for household desired mobility serves to explain some of the mixed results in the literature, and generates lessons for current and future crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

An Integrated Competitiveness Assessment of the Baltic Capitals Based on the Principles of Sustainable Development

The competition between cities involves the search for different ways and means to create, attract, sustain, and use diverse resources, knowledge, ideas, and innovations to support the economic growth of each individual city and, as a result, to strengthen the city’s position in the urban hierarchy both short-term and long-term. However, for each city, urbanisation does not only mean an increase in competitive economic power but also a number of problems such as pollution, poverty, crime and unemployment. In order to address the challenges posed by the urbanisation processes, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) issued the 1987 Report that emphasised the need for sustainable socio-economic development that would also consider ecological factors. Given this, the article examines the issue of urban competitiveness on the basis of sustainable development principles. After a systematic and comparative analysis of the concepts published in the scientific literature, this article accomplishes the following: It defines the concept of competitiveness in urban areas; it identifies the inclusion aspects of the sustainable development principles into the assessment of urban competitiveness; it presents the research into urban competitiveness assessment models; and it carries out an integrated competitiveness assessment of the Baltic capitals in the period of 2014–2019 based on the principles of sustainable development by applying the integrated competitiveness assessment model that is based on the principles of sustainable development (MDK).

Economic Transition and the Evolution of City-Size Distribution of China’s Urban System

The evolution of city size distribution in China has gained a great deal of scholarly attention. However, little is known about the effect of economic transition on the reorganization of city size distribution in China. Using an urban hierarchy with cascade structure model, we decompose Zipf’s law into two exponential functions that provide a new way of examining the dynamic processes of urban system evolution. This study aims to investigate the dominating latent forces that affect China’s city size distribution through mathematical modeling of the hierarchical scaling laws based on census data of 1982, 1990, 2000, and 2010. A number of features of China’s city size distribution are found. First, the size distribution of Chinese cities displayed a clear trend of evolving toward the Zipf distribution, which is the result of economic transition from planned to market. Second, the rank-size pattern still deviates slightly from the standard Zipf distribution, as indicated by the narrow scaling range and departure of the scaling exponent from the theoretically expected value. We argue that the top-down state regulation is a critical cause of deviation of China’s city size distribution from Zipf’s law.

GeoDetector Based Research on Spatial Differentiation and Influencing Factors on China Urban Exhibition Development

The author constructed index system, including 4 factors, namely Regional environment, related supporting industries, market openness, urban hierarchy and 17 sub-variables with 69 cities as sample, to analyze the spatial differentiation and factors influencing China urban exhibition development based on Natural Breaking Point and Geographic Detector. The research results show that there is significant spatial differentiation for China urban exhibition development; Factors that have a significant impact on the development of urban exhibition include Related supporting industries, open market, Urban hierarchy and two variables of Regional environment, namely, the Regional GDP and GDP Proportion of Tertiary Industry. The interactions between factors is more influential than factors alone.

Indicators of Spatial Dominance of the Potential of Transformation in the Urban Hierarchy: A Comparative Analysis of Musayyib and Suwayrah in Iraq

The spatial dimension is the basis of the process of identifying the common interests and objectives of the parties involved in the planning process and it carries the flexibility to determine decisions related to economic and social development. The city is an integrated representation to the essence of spatial dimension. It is a purely social phenomenon and a state of interaction between human groups within economic and cultural dimensions. Cities are developed by human interaction, transportation, and communication; which is one of the means of this interaction that contribute to the growth of the urban center. Cities divided according to the functional classification often based on the existence and operation of primary, secondary and tertiary economic activities. The growth of cities developed by human interaction within economic and cultural dimensions. The current research suggests that the mechanism by which the change of the administrative unit approved are limited to the same bases used in determining the city rankings (including the transfer of the administrative ranks from districts to governorates in Iraq, especially a mechanism that does not provide an integrated view of spatial dimensions). This research aims to study the concept of urban transformation in the urban structure in an integrated manner according to the functional relations and its spatial implications with the two attributes of spatial dominance, and the urban hierarchy of cities within the urban system. The theoretical framework indicators were applied to the cities of Musayyib and Suwayrah in Iraq. The main conclusion of the study is that transforming these cities to a higher administrative rank does not change the hierarchical disparities along the country level while serving the city as a dominating city within its regional scope.