Triangle-mapping Analysis on Spatial Competition and Cooperation of Chinese Cities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a triangle transition method to analyze the spatial distribution and economic interactions of Chinese cities, revealing patterns of competition and cooperation based on economic volume ratios.

Contribution

The study presents a novel triangle-mapping approach to empirically analyze city spatial relationships and economic interactions in China.

Findings

Cities tend to gather centrally, indicating spatial competition.

Neighboring cities with similar economic size tend to compete.

Cities with larger economic differences tend to cooperate.

Abstract

In this paper, we empirically analyze the spatial distribution of Chinese cities using a method based on triangle transition. This method uses a regular triangle mapping from the observed cities and its three neighboring cities to analyze their distribution of mapping positions. We find that obvious center-gathering tendency for the relationship between cities and its nearest three cities, indicating the spatial competition between cities. Moreover, we observed the competitive trends between neighboring cities with similar economic volume, and the remarkable cooperative tendency between neighboring cities with large difference on economy. The threshold of the ratio of the two cities' economic volume on the transition from competition to cooperation is about 1.2. These findings are helpful in the understanding of the cities economic relationship, especially in the study of competition and cooperation between cities.