Measuring the spatial hierarchical urban system in China in reference to the Central Place Theory

Abstract

Dynamic urbanization processes have caused great changes on China’s urban spatial pattern and hierarchical structure in the past few decades. In this study, we propose new metrics for measuring the pattern of urban land by considering both, spatial distribution and hierarchical structure of the urban system. The metrics are deduced from Christaller’s Central Place Theory and allow evaluating the spatial pattern of urban land based on three indicators: azimuth heterogeneity, distance heterogeneity and quantity heterogeneity of subordinate urban patches around the corresponding higher-rank urban patch. For monitoring the evolution of the spatial hierarchical urban system, we apply these metrics on China’s urban lands for the time period of 1990 until 2015 based on provincial administrative units. The results show that (1) at the national level, we find hierarchical spatial urban systems similar to the ideal pattern suggested by the Central Places Theory in the eastern and central regions; (2) the hierarchical urban systems develop between 1990 until 2015 in most areas in the opposite direction of the ideal pattern suggested by the Central Place Theory; however, this tendency is more evident in the eastern and central regions than in western inland regions. Besides, we find underdeveloped urban systems, i.e. patterns that have some missing high levels in the hierarchical gradation and over developed urban systems, i.e. patterns that have some missing low levels in the hierarchical gradation. We discuss alternative urban systems for explaining the inapplicability of the Central Places Theory in some examples.