Network analysis and spatial agglomeration of China's high-speed rail: A dual network approach
Wei Wang(王微)1,2, Wen-Bo Du(杜文博)1,2, Wei-Han Li(李威翰)3, Lu (Carol) Tong(佟路)4,†, and Jiao-E Wang(王姣娥)5,6,‡
1 School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; 2 National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive Traffic, Beijing 100191, China; 3 School of Cyber Science and Technology, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; 4 Research Institute of Frontier Science, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; 5 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; 6 College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Abstract China has the largest high-speed railway (HSR) system in the world, and it has gradually reshaped the urban network. The HSR system can be represented as different types of networks in terms of the nodes and various relationships (i.e., linkages) between them. In this paper, we first introduce a general dual network model, including a physical network (PN) and a logical network (LN) to provide a comparative analysis for China's high-speed rail network via complex network theory. The PN represents a layout of stations and rail tracks, and forms the basis for operating all trains. The LN is a network composed of the origin and destination stations of each high-speed train and the train flows between them. China's high-speed railway (CHSR) has different topological structures and link strengths for PN in comparison with the LN. In the study, the community detection is used to analyze China's high-speed rail networks and several communities are found to be similar to the layout of planned urban agglomerations in China. Furthermore, the hierarchies of urban agglomerations are different from each other according to the strength of inter-regional interaction and intra-regional interaction, which are respectively related to location and spatial development strategies. Moreover, a case study of the Yangtze River Delta shows that the hub stations have different resource divisions and are major contributors to the gap between train departure and arrival flows.
Fund: Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFF0301400) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61671031, 61722102, 41722103, and 61961146005).
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