The Mechanism Behind Urban Population Growth and Shrinkage from the Perspective of Urban Network Externalities

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon,and it will coexist with urban growth for many years.At the same time,the network connection between cities continuously improved due to the construction of the transportation and information networks.However,the relationship between urban network externalities and urban population growth/shrinkage remains unclear.Therefore,based on high-speed railway(HSR)flow data,a spatial econometric model is used to explore the mechanism behind urban population growth and shrinkage from the perspective of network externalities in China.The results indicate that:1)the urban network experiences a certain clubbing effect.Growing cities that are strongly connected are concentrated along China’s main railway lines and the southeastern coastal areas,while shrinking cities that are weakly connected are distributed at the periphery of the network.2)Moreover,the network externality disregards spatial distance and together with the agglomeration externality influences the growth and shrinking of cities.3)Urban economic development still promotes the development of Chinese cities.However,the improvement of the urban economy has a negative cross-regional spillover effect on neighboring cities due to urban competition.4)Lastly,Local spillovers of urban network externalities are positive,while cross-regional ones are negative.Consequently,the government needs to promote the construction of multi-dimensional network connections between cities to promote cities’sustainable development.This study reveals the relationship between urban network externalities and urban development,enriches the theories of network externalities and urban growth/shrinkage,and provides a reference for regional coordinated development.

The Structure and Pattern of Urban Network in the Lanzhou-Xining Urban Agglomeration

In this paper,we use factor analysis to evaluate the urban comprehensive quality of each city in the Lanzhou-Xining(Lan-Xi)urban agglomeration.The time distance was obtained by using GIS spatial analysis,and the structure and pattern of the spatial network were analyzed by using the gravity model and social network analysis method.The results show that:1)The scale effect of the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration is gradually emerging,and it is gradually forming the urban agglomeration with Lanzhou and Xining as the core,the Lan-Xi high-speed railway as the axis,and a high-dense connection.2)Lanzhou and Xining are at the core of the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration,which has a strong attraction and spreads to neighboring cities.3)In the network structure of the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration,Lanzhou,Baiyin,Gaolan,Yuzhong,Yongdeng,Dingxi,Lintao,Xining,Ledu,Huangzhong,Ping’an,Minhe and Datong are located in the network core position,which have the superiority position and lead to the entire regional communication enhancement and the regional integration development.4)This urban agglomeration has significant subgroups,eight tertiary subgroups and four secondary subgroup;the tertiary subgroups which compose secondary subgroup have a close connection and mutually influence each other.5)The Lanzhou Metropolitan Area and the Xining Metropolitan Area have an important impact on the surrounding cities,and the peripheral cities are basically controlled by the central city.The Dingxi subgroup,Lintao-Linxia subgroup,Gonghe subgroup have more structural holes than the subgroups within the Lanzhou Metropolitan Area and the Xining Metropolitan Area,so the peripheral cities of these subgroups have relatively less connection with surrounding cities.

Examination and Interpretation of the Quantitative Validity in China’s Corporate-based Urban Network Analysis

As a matter of expediency, most existing corporate-based urban networks can only be quantitatively measured by either counting the number of linkages or calculating the product of estimated service values. However, the impreciseness arising due to the limits of quantitative analysis may prove fatal to studies about non-market economies like China. Employing the capital investment dataset as an example, we build a capital-weighted intervention network as well as an unweighted control network to carry out an examination of the quantitative validity in China’s corporate-based urban network analysis. Both the overall spatial pattern and top city-dyads within the capital-weighted network witness Beijing, as the most dominant city, overshadow the performance of the others, and the unweighted network shows multilateral interactions between China’s top cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. To further interpret the noticeable differences, we divide the overall network into two subnetworks, inferred by focusing on state-owned enterprises(SOEs) and private enterprises. The results show that the public and private sectors have separately created vastly different subnetworks in China and that SOEs play a much more significant role in terms of capital. Besides fresh insights into China’s urban network, this study provides a cautionary tale reminding researchers of the essentiality and complexity when making a quantitative distinction between different linkages.

Mapping Urban Networks through Inter-Firm Linkages: The Case of Listed Companies in Yangtze River Delta, China

Recently, literature on urban network research from the perspective of ?rm networks has been increasing. This research mainly used data from the headquarters and branches of all 2581 listed manufacturing companies in the Yangtze River Delta from 1990 to 2017, and studied the urban network through an interlocking network model that quantifies the links between enterprises. The results showed that the spatial distribution of listed manufacturing industries in the Yangtze River Delta was relatively concentrated, and cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou were hot spots for the spatial distribution of listed manufacturing industries. However, Fuyang, Suqian, Chizhou, Lishui and other network edge cities were less distributed in manufacturing. The urban network of the Yangtze River Delta has significant hierarchical characteristics. The urban network of the Yangtze River Delta presents a multi-center network development mode with Shanghai as the center and Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei as the sub-centers. Moreover, we found that the development of inter-city connections in the Yangtze River Delta was driven by network mechanisms of priority attachment and path dependence. The radiating capacity and agglomeration capacity of cities in the Yangtze River Delta have a strong polarization characteristic. The core cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei have much higher network radiation capabilities than network aggregation capabilities. However, other non-core cities and network edge cities have weak network radiation capabilities, and mainly accept network radiation from core cities. It enriches the research of urban networks based on real inter-?rm connections, and provides ideas for the wider regional study and the combination of econometric techniques and social network analysis.

An Overall Urban System: Integrating Central Place Theory and Urban Network Idea in the Greater Pearl River Delta of China

Following a half century of popularity, central place theory experienced 20 years of neglect when the new urban system theory of network modeling gained attention at the beginning of the 1990s. However, central place theory remains valid, and it seems there has been a reemergence with it. Using the Greater Pearl River Delta (Greater PRD) as an experimental study region, this paper intends to present an empirical study that validates central place theory and shows that it can be integrated into an overall regional urban system. The study uses the compound Central Place Importance (CPI) to evaluate whether there is a hierarchy among the urban centers within the study area. The results indicate the existence of a hierarchy. Furthermore, empirical observation finds distinct complementarity relationships, rank-size distributions, and co-operative actions between the different cities, thus substantiating the claim that central place theory can be incorporated into an overall regional urban system. Besides, the presence of the densely distributed modern infrastructure system also appears to constitute a dimension of the overall urban system. There need further theoretical and empirical studies in order to support this proposition.

Autonomous Vehicle Platoons In Urban Road Networks:A Joint Distributed Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control Approach

In this paper, platoons of autonomous vehicles operating in urban road networks are considered. From a methodological point of view, the problem of interest consists of formally characterizing vehicle state trajectory tubes by means of routing decisions complying with traffic congestion criteria. To this end, a novel distributed control architecture is conceived by taking advantage of two methodologies: deep reinforcement learning and model predictive control. On one hand, the routing decisions are obtained by using a distributed reinforcement learning algorithm that exploits available traffic data at each road junction. On the other hand, a bank of model predictive controllers is in charge of computing the more adequate control action for each involved vehicle. Such tasks are here combined into a single framework:the deep reinforcement learning output(action) is translated into a set-point to be tracked by the model predictive controller;conversely, the current vehicle position, resulting from the application of the control move, is exploited by the deep reinforcement learning unit for improving its reliability. The main novelty of the proposed solution lies in its hybrid nature: on one hand it fully exploits deep reinforcement learning capabilities for decisionmaking purposes;on the other hand, time-varying hard constraints are always satisfied during the dynamical platoon evolution imposed by the computed routing decisions. To efficiently evaluate the performance of the proposed control architecture, a co-design procedure, involving the SUMO and MATLAB platforms, is implemented so that complex operating environments can be used, and the information coming from road maps(links,junctions, obstacles, semaphores, etc.) and vehicle state trajectories can be shared and exchanged. Finally by considering as operating scenario a real entire city block and a platoon of eleven vehicles described by double-integrator models, several simulations have been performed with the aim to put in light the main f eatures of the proposed approach. Moreover, it is important to underline that in different operating scenarios the proposed reinforcement learning scheme is capable of significantly reducing traffic congestion phenomena when compared with well-reputed competitors.

Analysis of Urban Agglomeration Network Structure Based on Baidu Migration Data: A Case Study of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Urban Agglomeration

The inter-city linkage heat data provided by Baidu Migration is employed as a characterization of inter-city linkages in order to facilitate the study of the network linkage characteristics and hierarchical structure of urban agglomeration in the Greater Bay Area through the use of social network analysis method.This is the inaugural application of big data based on location services in the study of urban agglomeration network structure,which represents a novel research perspective on this topic.The study reveals that the density of network linkages in the Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration has reached 100%,indicating a mature network-like spatial structure.This structure has given rise to three distinct communities:Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou,Guangzhou-Foshan-Zhaoqing,and Zhuhai-Zhongshan-Jiangmen.Additionally,cities within the Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration play different roles,suggesting that varying development strategies may be necessary to achieve staggered development.The study demonstrates that large datasets represented by LBS can offer novel insights and methodologies for the examination of urban agglomeration network structures,contingent on the appropriate mining and processing of the data.

Urban Drainage Network Scheduling Strategy Based on Dynamic Regulation: Optimization Model and Theoretical Research

With the acceleration of urbanization in China,the discharge of domestic sewage and industrial wastewater is increasing,and accidents of sewage spilling out and polluting the environment occur from time to time.Problems such as imperfect facilities and backward control methods are com-mon in the urban drainage network systems in China.Efficient drainage not only strengthens infrastructure such as rain and sewage diversion,pollution source monitoring,transportation,drainage and storage but also urgently needs technical means to monitor and optimize production and operation.Aiming at the optimal control of single-stage pumping stations and the coordinated control between two-stage pumping stations,this paper studies the modelling and optimal control of drainage network systems.Based on the Long Short Term Memory(LSTM)water level prediction model of the sewage pumping stations,and then based on the mechanism analysis of drainage pipe network,the factors that may cause the water level change of pumping station are obtained.Grey correlation analysis is carried out on these influencing factors,and the prediction model is established by taking the factors with a high correlation degree as input.The research results show that compared with the traditional prediction model,the LSTM model not only has higher prediction accuracy but also has better inflection point tracking ability.

Study of macroscopic fundamental diagram on Shanghai urban expressway network in China

The macroscopic fundamental diagram（ MFD） is studied to obtain the aggregate behavior of traffic in cities. This paper investigates the existence and the characteristics of different types of daily MFD for the Shanghai urban expressway network. The existence of MFD in the Shanghai urban expressway network is proved based on two weeks＇ data.Moreover, the hysteresis phenomena is present in most days and the network exhibits different hysteresis loops under different traffic situations. The relationship between the hysteresis phenomena and the inhomogeneity of traffic distribution is verified. The MFDs in the years of 2009 and 2012 are compared. The hysteresis loop still exists in 2012, which further verifies the existence of the hysteresis phenomenon. The direct relationship between the length of the hysteresis loop（ ΔO） and the congestion is proved based on sufficient data. The width of the hysteresis loop, i. e., the drop in network flow（ ΔQ） has no relationship with the congestion, and it varies from day to day under different traffic situations.

Design of Aided Decision-Making Program for Prioritizing Construction Projects in Urban Road Network Planning

The importance and complexity of prioritizing construction projects (PCP) in urban road network planning lead to the necessity to develop an aided decision making program (ADMP). Cost benefit ratio model and stage rolled method are chosen as the theoretical foundations of the program, and then benefit model is improved to accord with the actuality of urban traffic in China. Consequently, program flows, module functions and data structures are designed, and particularly an original data structure of road ...

AUTOSIM:Automated Urban Traffic Operation Simulation via Meta-Learning

Online traffic simulation that feeds from online information to simulate vehicle movement in real-time has recently seen substantial advancement in the development of intelligent transportation systems and urban traffic management.It has been a challenging problem due to three aspects:1)The diversity of traffic patterns due to heterogeneous layouts of urban intersections;2)The nature of complex spatiotemporal correlations;3)The requirement of dynamically adjusting the parameters of traffic models in a real-time system.To cater to these challenges,this paper proposes an online traffic simulation framework called automated urban traffic operation simulation via meta-learning(AUTOSIM).In particular,simulation models with various intersection layouts are automatically generated using an open-source simulation tool based on static traffic geometry attributes.Through a meta-learning technique,AUTOSIM enables an automated learning process for dynamic model settings of traffic scenarios featured with different spatiotemporal correlations.Besides,AUTOSIM is capable of adapting traffic model parameters according to dynamic traffic information in real-time by using a meta-learner.Through computational experiments,we demonstrate the effectiveness of the meta-learningbased framework that is capable of providing reliable supports to real-time traffic simulation and dynamic traffic operations.

Reform of Urban Spatial Pattern in the Age of Network Communication

Through reviewing different development phases of transportation and communication facilities as well as their profound influence on the evolution of urban spatial pattern,it was disclosed that the development and improvement of information network communication would bring fundamental transformation of urban basic functions which would take effect through the usage of urban land,and finally lead to the spatial pattern reform of the whole city.

Prediction of SO_2 Concentration in Urban Atmosphere Based on B-P Neural Network

Base on the principle and method of B-P neural network,the prediction model of SO2 concentration in urban atmosphere was established by using the statistical data of a city in southwest China from 1991 to 2009,so as to forecast atmospheric SO2 concentration in a city of southwest China.The results showed that B-P neural network applied in the prediction of SO2 concentration in urban atmosphere was reasonable and efficient with high accuracy and wide adaptability,so it was worthy to be popularized.

Analysis of robustness of urban bus network

In this paper, the invulnerability and cascade failures are discussed for the urban bus network. Firstly, three static models（bus stop network, bus transfer network, and bus line network） are used to analyse the structure and invulnerability of urban bus network in order to understand the features of bus network comprehensively. Secondly, a new way is proposed to study the invulnerability of urban bus network by modelling two layered networks, i.e., the bus stop-line network and the bus line-transfer network and then the interactions between different models are analysed. Finally, by modelling a new layered network which can reflect the dynamic passenger flows, the cascade failures are discussed. Then a new load redistribution method is proposed to study the robustness of dynamic traffic. In this paper, the bus network of Shenyang City which is one of the biggest cities in China, is taken as a simulation example. In addition, some suggestions are given to improve the urban bus network and provide emergency strategies when traffic congestion occurs according to the numerical simulation results.

Integrated reliability of travel time and capacity of urban road network under ice and snowfall conditions

In order to evaluate and integrate travel time reliability and capacity reliability of a road network subjected to ice and snowfall conditions,the conceptions of travel time reliability and capacity reliability were defined under special conditions.The link travel time model(ice and snowfall based-bureau public road,ISB-BPR) and the path choice decision model(elastic demand user equilibrium,EDUE) were proposed.The integrated reliability was defined and the model was set up.Monte Carlo simulation was used to calculate the model and a numerical example was provided to demonstrate the application of the model and efficiency of the solution algorithm.The results show that the intensity of ice and snowfall,the traffic demand and supply,and the requirements for level of service(LOS) have great influence on the reliability of a road network.For example,the reliability drops from 65% to 5% when the traffic demand increases by 30%.The comprehensive performance index may be used for network planning,design and maintenance.

An evolutionary model of urban bus transport network based on B-space

In this paper, an evolutionary model of bus transport network in B-space is developed. It includes the effect of the overlapping ratio of new route on network performance and overcomes the disadvantage, i.e. lack of economic consideration, in the evolutionary bus transport network model in P-space proposed by Chen et al （2007）. The degree distribution functions are derived by using the mean-field method and the master equation method, separately. The relationship between the new stop ratio of a route, λ, and the error in exponential of degree distribution function from the mean-field method is developed as ASlope= λ/（1 -λ） ＋ ln（1-λ）. Finally, the bus transport networks of Hangzhou and Nanjing are simulated by using this model, and the results show that some characteristic index values of the simulated networks are closer to the empirical data than those from Chen＇s model.

RESEARCH ON FRACTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN TRAFFIC NETWORK STRUCTURE BASED ON GIS

Traffic network is an importance asp ect of researching controllable parameters of an urban spatial morpholo-gy.Based on GIS,traffic network str ucture complexity can be understood by using fractal geometry in which th e length-radius dimension describes change of network density,and ramification-radius dimension describes complexity and accessibility of urban network.It i s propitious to analyze urban traffic network and to understand dynamic c hange process of traffic network using expanding f ractal-dimension quantification.Meanwhile the length-radius dimension and ramifica-tion-radius dimension could be rega rd as reference factor of quantitative describing urban traffic network.

Traffic Signals Control with Adaptive Fuzzy Controller in Urban Road Network

An adaptive fuzzy logic controller (AFC) is presented for the signal control of the urban traffic network. The AFC is composed of the signal control system-oriented control level and the signal controller-oriented fuzzy rules regulation level. The control level decides the signal timings in an intersection with a fuzzy logic controller. The regulation level optimizes the fuzzy rules by the Adaptive Rule Module in AFC according to both the system performance index in current control period and the traffic flows in the last one. Consequently the system performances are improved. A weight coefficient controller (WCC) is also developed to describe the interactions of traffic flow among the adjacent intersections. So the AFC combined with the WCC can be applied in a road network for signal timings. Simulations of the AFC on a real traffic scenario have been conducted. Simulation results indicate that the adaptive controller for traffic control shows better performance than the actuated one.

Spatial Structure of China's E-commerce Express Logistics Network Based on Space of Flows

The intermediate link compression characteristics of e-commerce express logistics ne tworks influence the tradition al mode of circulation of goods and economic organization,and alter the city spatial pattern.Based on the theory of space of flows,this study adopts China Smart Logistics Network relational data to build China's e-commerce express logistics network and explore its spatial structure characteristics through social network analysis(SNA),the PageRank technique,and geospatial methods.The results are as follows:the network density is 0.9270,which is close to 1;hence,indicating that e-commerce express logistics lines between Chinese cities are nearly complete and they form a typical network structure,thereby eliminating fragmented spaces.Moreover,the average minimum number of edges is 1.1375,which indicates that the network has a small world effect and thus has a high flow efficiency of logistics elements.A significant hierarchical diffusion effect was observed in dominant flows with the highest edge weights.A diamond-structured network was formed with Shanghai,Guangzhou,Chongqing,and Beijing as the four core nodes.Other node cities with a large logistics scale and importance in the network are mainly located in the 19 city agglomerations of China,revealing the fact that the development of city agglomerations is essential for promoting the separation of experience space and changing the urban spatial pattern.This study enriches the theory of urban networks,reveals the flow laws of modern logistics elements,and encourages coordinated development of urban logistics.

On the modes of urban-rural networking development in China

This essay tries to reveal the developmental regularity of urban-rural networking manifested by urbanization. The urban-rural networking is a reality and an inexorable trend of development. As a physical existence, the urban-rural networking reflects a result of the interaction between cities and rural areas; it is a necessary and sufficient condition for sustaining progress of cities and rural areas. As an objective developmental tendency, it reflects an urban-rural regional economic process. The author briefly analyzes two contradictory urban-rural developmental views, and puts forward a concept of the mode of urban-rural networking development. The author also analyzes the mode from the perspectives of economics and philosophy.