Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 74 ›› Issue (12): 2482-2494.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201912005

• Regional Development Pattern and Space Governance • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Comparison of spatial structure and linkage systems and geographic constraints: A perspective of multiple traffic flows

WANG Jiao'e1,2, DU Delin1,2, JIN Fengjun1,2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling/Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
  • Received:2019-01-02 Revised:2019-11-03 Online:2019-12-25 Published:2019-12-25
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(41722103);National Natural Science Foundation of China(41771134)

Abstract:

Transportation connection has always been one of the important perspectives of studying spatial cascading systems and urban systems. Based on the timetable data in 2018 of inter-city coach, high-speed train and aviation, this paper builds networks of the three modes of transportation in China. Through the methods of the city-pair connectivity and community detection, this paper compares the spatial structure and linkage systems of multi-traffic flow network and reveals the geospatial constraints. The research results show that: (1) Different modes of transportation are suitable for portraying urban systems on different spatial and administrative scales. Inter-city coaches are constrained by the provincial administrative boundaries. High-speed train network shows the effect of corridors especially along the main trunks. The aviation network reflects the spatial relationship at the national scale. (2) From the perspective of the direct accessibility, there is a large spatial overlap between inter-city coaches and high-speed trains, and the market of inter-city coaches is obviously squeezed in recent years. For air transport, its frequency advantage mainly concentrates on the city-pairs with a long distance. The competition and complementarity of the three modes of transportation have a great impact on the urban system and are useful for the understanding of the spatial cascading system. (3) Geographical space, infrastructure space and administrative space constraint and management system are important factors affecting the transportation networks. Inter-city coach network and high-speed train network are obviously affected by distance attenuation effects, and they present significant community structures in the two networks, but their communities have different spatial characteristics. However, air transport does not follow the constraint of distance attenuation, and there is not an obvious community structure in the network. Factors related to the passenger transport market, such as social and economic links and tourism resources, play the important roles in the aviation network structure.

Key words: road transportation, high-speed train, air transport, urban system, geographic space, infrastructure space