关键词: 城市空间分布格局, Ripley′s K函数, 边界效应, 市场潜力, 浙江省

Abstract:

This article considers 3 different constructions of Ripley’s K function to deal with the global and local measure of urban spatial distribution in a particular area. Specifically, the first one allows us to identify and measure the distribution pattern of city location and size over space. By incorporating a geography-weighted variable into the K function, the second one may better capture the importance of border effects on the urban distribution disparities across regions. The third one decomposes the K function into the contribution of each individual observation, and provides the suggestion of spatial regimes on city distribution. Based on these three kinds of K function form, we investigate the spatial characteristics of city distribution at the county level in Zhejiang Province, given the population data and per capita income data between 2001 and 2010. The results are as follows. 1) The spatial distributions of city location are not inconsistent with those of city size in Zhejiang Province during this period. That is to say, the location distribution of Zhejiang’s cities has been more dispersed while the size distribution has been more concentrated across space at geographical scales over time. 2) In terms of provincial boundaries and coastlines, the border effects have negative impacts on the spatial distributions of both city location and city size. The negative border effects increase with geographical scale. 3) In the dynamic process of Zhejiang urbanization, three mass-clusters of urban accumulative regions with individual industrial characteristics can be found. However, the negative border effects would limit to the exposition of these urban accumulative regions. In this way, Hangzhou and Ningbo might have a public service responsibility to provide assistance for the whole province. 4) The uneven distributions of city sizes in Zhejiang Province might have been influenced by its market potential, that is to say, its city sizes positively related to market potential, and the growth rate of city population is less than that of market potential at geographical scales.

Key words: pattern of urban spatial distribution, Ripley’s K function, border effect, market potential, Zhejiang Province