PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (5): 619-626.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2010.05.015

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Integrated Transport Accessibility in the Yangtze River Delta: 1986-2005

WU Wei, CAO Youhui, LIANG Shuangbo   

  1. Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS, Nanjing 210008, China
  • Received:2010-01-01 Revised:2010-03-01 Online:2010-05-25 Published:2010-05-25

Abstract:

Based on the integrated transport network in 1986, 1994 and 2005, choosing weighted mean travel time as the indicator, the temporal and spatial evolution of integrated transport network and its accessibility are elaborated, and some conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) The speedy development of integrated transport network results in the continual improvement of accessibility, which is faster in the second period (1994-2005) than that in the first period (1986-1994). The optimal region of integrated accessibility is Shanghai and the zone along the Taihu Lake in three time section. The sub-optimal region of integrated accessibility was“>- shaped” that consisted of the zone along the Shanghai-Nanjing route and the Shanghai-Hangzhou route in 1986 and 1994, but it had the “Z-shaped” pattern that consisted of the zone along the Shanghai-Nanjing route, the Yangtze River and the Shanghai-Hangzhou route, and the Hangzhou-Ningbo route. (2) The benefits from the improvement of accessibility are different among the nodes. The changing extent of weighted mean travel time is related to the initial value, and the nodes with high initial value decrease more. The changing rate is higher in the central region than that in the north and south regions. Both the changing extent and the changing rate have different patterns in the different periods. (3) Shanghai has the best in integrated accessibility, followed by Jiangsu provinces, and Zhejiang province is the worst, but the dominant position of Shanghai is weakening, and the gap between Jiangsu and Zhejiang is narrowing. (4) The standard deviation of integrated accessibility coefficient decreases in the research period, which shows that the integrated transport network in the Yangtze River Delta is improving, but there are different developmental processes among various transport modes.

Key words: equilibrium, integrated transport accessibility, temporal and spatial evolution, the Yangtze River Delta