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Indication of long-range correlations governing city size

  • City systems are characterized by the functional organization of cities on a regional or country scale. While there is a relatively good empirical and theoretical understanding of city size distributions, insights about their spatial organization remain on a conceptual level. Here, we analyze empirically the correlations between the sizes of cities (in terms of area) across long distances. Therefore, we (i) define city clusters, (ii) obtain the neighborhood network from Voronoi cells, and (iii) apply a fluctuation analysis along all shortest paths. We find that most European countries exhibit long-range correlations but in several cases these are anti-correlations. In an analogous way, we study a model inspired by Central Places Theory andCity systems are characterized by the functional organization of cities on a regional or country scale. While there is a relatively good empirical and theoretical understanding of city size distributions, insights about their spatial organization remain on a conceptual level. Here, we analyze empirically the correlations between the sizes of cities (in terms of area) across long distances. Therefore, we (i) define city clusters, (ii) obtain the neighborhood network from Voronoi cells, and (iii) apply a fluctuation analysis along all shortest paths. We find that most European countries exhibit long-range correlations but in several cases these are anti-correlations. In an analogous way, we study a model inspired by Central Places Theory and find that it leads to positive long-range correlations, unless there is strong additional spatial disorder - contrary to intuition. We conclude that the interactions between cities extend over large distances reaching the country scale. Our findings have policy relevance as urban development or decline can affect cities at a considerable distance.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Document Type:Peer-Reviewed Article
Author:Yunfei Li, Deniz Ural, Jan W. Kantelhardt, Diego Rybski
URN (citable link):https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:wup4-opus-86560
DOI (citable link):https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae329
Year of Publication:2024
Language:English
Source Title (English):PNAS nexus
Volume:3
Issue:9
Article Number:329
Divisions:Energie-, Verkehrs- und Klimapolitik
Dewey Decimal Classification:500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik
OpenAIRE:OpenAIRE
Licence:License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell 4.0 International