Using Zipf’s Law to Optimize Urban Spatial Layouts in an Urban Agglomeration Area

Abstract

The study of the land use optimization of urban agglomerations is of great significance to the rational utilization of land resources and the sustainable development of urban agglomerations. Previous studies have simply regarded the urban agglomeration as a whole area or each city as an isolated individual, without considering the regional coordinated development of urban agglomerations in land use optimization objectives. This study proposed the first attempt to couple Zipf’s law and a multiobjective optimization model of land use in an urban agglomeration. Zipf’s law was applied to quantify the coordinated development of urban agglomeration and use it as one of the objectives of land use optimization. The genetic algorithm was adopted to establish the optimization model, and different future development scenarios were designed for comparison. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration was selected as the study area, and the proposed model obtained effective results within an acceptable time. The Zipf’s law–based optimization objective provided a more coordinated scale structure for urban growth and led the urban structure to develop toward the optimized state. There was a conflict, however, between the coordination and the other two objectives (compactness and suitability). Different stakeholders need to consider the trade-offs among these optimization objectives in urban planning. Finally, based on the optimization patterns of local areas, we suggest the following: Some large-scale cities (e.g., Beijing and Tianjin) should strictly control their new urban expansion or transfer part of their resources and population; Langfang and Xingtai should accelerate their development or take over part of the noncapital function of Beijing; and Zhangjiakou and Chengde should optimize their urban morphology and suitability.

Key Words:

• genetic algorithm
• land use spatial optimization
• urban agglomeration
• Zipf’s law

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the editor and anonymous referees for their valuable comments and detailed suggestions that improved this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42271437), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42171466), and the Scientific Research Program Projects of the Department of Natural Resources of Hubei Province (Grant No. ZRZY2022KJ12).

Notes on contributors

Yifan Wang

YIFAN WANG is a Graduate from the School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests are the simulation and optimization of urban agglomeration land use layout.

Jianjun Lyu

JIANJUN LYU is a Professor at the School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are spatial structure evaluation and optimization of urban agglomerations and spatiotemporal big data analytics.

Xun Liang

XUN LIANG is a Professor at the School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are geographic spatiotemporal dynamic simulation and urban planning.

Chuanhua Luo

CHUANHUA LUO is an Engineer at No.321 Geological Team, Bureau of Geological and Mineral Exploration of Anhui Province, Tongling 244033, Anhui Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are environmental remediation and solid waste resource utilization.

Xiaonan Ma

XIAONAN MA is a Graduate from the School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests are big data and urban computing.

Jiang Li

JIANG LI is an Engineer at the Information Center of Hubei Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Wuhan 430071, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His main research interests are photogrammetry and remote sensing.

Qiang Li

QIANG LI is an Engineer at the Information Center of Hubei Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Wuhan 430071, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His main research interests are photogrammetry and remote sensing.

Lina Zheng

LINA ZHENG is an Engineer at the Information Center of Hubei Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Wuhan 430071, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. She is mainly engaged in the development and platform construction of geographic information systems.

Qingfeng Guan

QINGFENG GUAN is a Professor at the School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, Hubei Province, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are high-performance spatial intelligence computation and urban computing.