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Similarities and differences of city-size distributions in three main urban agglomerations of China from 1992 to 2015: A comparative study based on nighttime light data

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Abstract

Comparing the city-size distribution at the urban agglomeration (UA) scale is important for understanding the processes of urban development. However, comparative studies of city-size distribution among China’s three largest UAs, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agglomeration (BTHA), the Yangtze River Delta agglomeration (YRDA), and the Pearl River Delta agglomeration (PRDA), remain inadequate due to the limitation of data availability. Therefore, using urban data derived from time-series nighttime light data, the common characteristics and distinctive features of city-size distribution among the three UAs from 1992 to 2015 were compared by the Pareto regression and the rank clock method. We identified two common features. First, the city-size distribution became more even. The Pareto exponents increased by 0.17, 0.12, and 0.01 in the YRDA, BTHA, and PRDA, respectively. Second, the average ranks of small cities ascended, being 0.55, 0.08 and 0.04 in the three UAs, respectively. However, the average ranks of large and medium cities in the three UAs experienced different trajectories, which are closely related to the similarities and differences in the driving forces for the development of UAs. Place-based measures are encouraged to promote a coordinated development among cities of differing sizes in the three UAs.

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Acknowledgments

We want to express our respect and gratitude to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Bin Gao, Qingxu Huang, Chunyang He & Yinyin Dou

  2. College of Resources Science & Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Bin Gao

  3. Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yinyin Dou

Authors
  1. Bin Gao
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  2. Qingxu Huang
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  3. Chunyang He
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  4. Yinyin Dou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chunyang He.

Additional information

Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41621061, No.41501092; Talents Training Program from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education No.201500002012G058

He Chunyang, Professor, specialized in urban sustainability and landscape sustainability

These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-first authors.

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Gao, B., Huang, Q., He, C. et al. Similarities and differences of city-size distributions in three main urban agglomerations of China from 1992 to 2015: A comparative study based on nighttime light data. J. Geogr. Sci. 27, 533–545 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1391-7

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