2022Journal article

Identifying Subcenters with a Nonparametric Method and Ubiquitous Point-of-Interest Data

Long, Y., Song, Y., & Chen, L.

Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 49(1), 58–75

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Research question

Can a common data source identify urban subcenters consistently across hundreds of cities?

Geographic scope

284 Chinese cities

Evidence base

Point-of-interest data and nonparametric urban analysis

Approach

A nonparametric method extracts concentrations of urban activity from ubiquitous point-of-interest data and compares patterns across cities.

Why it matters

The study offers a scalable way to describe polycentric urban structure when detailed conventional employment data are unavailable.

Research connections

Where this paper sits in the lab’s research system