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| THE DELINEATION OF INFLUENTIAL REGIONS OF CENTRAL CITES AND URBANAGGLOMERATION BASED ON THE MULTIPLICATIVELY WEIGHTED VORONOI DIAGRAM |
| LIU Rong-zeng1, MU Lan2 |
1. Institute of Regional Economy, Zhengzhou University, 450001, China;
2. Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA |
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Abstract Urban Agglomerations are the merging processes and patterns originated from one or multiple cities. It appears more often when urban development is region-oriented, andvice versa. Consensus has been reached in China and other countries that UAs are developed areas with denser population and built-environment reflecting a higher level of urbanization. In the era of information technology and globalization, UAs are becoming nodal regions in global economic system. The study of UAs has drawn more and more attention. Understanding UAs help solve problems such as the integrity of environmental optimization and the share of infrastructures. The article pays a special attention to UAs in He'nan Provicnce. Zhongyuan Urban Agglomeration (ZYUA) in central China includes Zhengzhou City, Luoyang City, Kaifeng City, Xinxiang City, Jiaozuo City, Xuchang City, Luohe City and Pingdingshan City. The south of ZYUA is Wuhan City, of Hubei Province, and the west and the north are Xi'an City, of Shanxi Province and Shijiazhuang City, of Hebei Province. The paper applies the model of the Multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagram (MWVD) to delineate the theoretical influential regions of each central city. Ordinary Voronoi diagram only considers locations of points to partition a space. MWVD overcomes the largest shortcoming of the ordinary model, and incorporates both location and weight (attribute) to partition a space from a set of points. Employing MWVD, the paper explores several proposed plans of ZYUA by spatially analyzing the influenced regions of central cities and their competition with major cities in neighboring provinces in 1957, 1965, 1978, 1985, 1995and 2005, and the projection of the spatial pattern changes according to the master plans of 2010 and 2020. Investigating the results of MWVD with other GIS tools, it concludes that the integration of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng is inadequate for the proposed influential regions of central cities for Henan Province, because they can not rival the influential region by Wuhan and Xi'an. A more powerful scenario is the integration of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Luoyang, or the integration of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xuchang, Xinxiang and Jiaozuo, or the entire ZYUA. Finally, it puts forward some policy suggestions for ZYUA including such as establishing a coordinative intercity structure, building cooperation mechanism among cities, enhancing Zhengzhou city's influence, and constructing a high-speed traffic network and a united market. The suggestions can serve the local governments as a reference and guide in urban development.
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Received: 26 November 2007
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2008, Vol. 23 
