Theoretical And Empirical Research On The Impact Of Urban Spatial Structure On Innovation Performance

Many famous developed cities in the world,such as New York,London,Tokyo,Shanghai and Shenzhen,are experiencing the development of population,space,economy and innovation.According to United Nations estimates,the global urban population will increase by more than 2.5 billion by 2050,which will undoubtedly lead to further growth of cities.With the continuous acceleration of urbanization process and the continuous expansion of urban scale,the spatial layout within the city has gradually become the focus of the government’s planning and development.Some big cities in China have actively invested in the construction of new towns and the development of new areas,which has played a huge role in promoting urban economic growth and urban space expansion,as well as improving urban competitiveness.But at the same time,it also brings many practical contradictions,such as urban sprawl,imbalance of spatial structure,low economic efficiency and difficulties in urban unit cooperation.For a long time,scholars have been actively exploring how to improve the urban agglomeration economy by optimizing the spatial structure,and carried out theoretical and empirical analysis from urban density,urban sprawl,multi center and other aspects.However,existing studies only analyze the impact of spatial structure on economic activities from the above factors,lacking a comprehensive analysis framework from the macro and micro perspectives.And innovation,as an important factor related to the long-term growth of urban economy,should receive full attention,but few studies have discussed the impact of urban spatial structure on innovation development.So in the current critical period of implementing the innovation driven development strategy,how to carry out the spatial layout in the planning process to build an innovative city?This important issue requires careful analysis and verification.In view of this,this paper attempts to analyze in detail how urban spatial structure affects the growth of innovation performance from both theoretical and empirical aspects.On the theoretical level,based on the classical agglomeration theory,this paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of urban spatial structure affecting innovation performance from the two main lines of geographical spatial barriers and agglomeration formation.At the empirical level,firstly,the Chinese patent documents from Harvard University’s China Data Lab are used to analyze the internal innovation agglomeration of Chinese cities;Then,starting from the macro scale of the city and the micro scale of the city,we use Land Scan population distribution data and Global Landcover global land cover data to comprehensively measure the urban spatial structure and capture its impact on innovation performance;Finally,we examine the mechanism of spatial structure affecting innovation performance based on the data of patent citation,spatial agglomeration and other aspects.Specifically,the third chapter elaborates the mechanism of spatial structure affecting urban innovation performance through theory;The fourth chapter analyzes whether there are spatio-temporal differences between the level of innovation agglomeration and innovation performance in Chinese cities;Chapter V,Chapter VI and Chapter VII analyze the impact of urban economic density,urban geometry and multi center on innovation performance from the perspective of urban macro spatial structure;Chapter 8 starts from the micro spatial structure within the city,and focuses on the impact of block scale density and skyscrapers on enterprise innovation.Based on the above research,we draw the following conclusions:(1)There are great differences in the distribution of innovation activities and the level of urban innovation within Chinese cities.Our analysis shows that: first,there are time development differences and regional differences in the innovation development level of Chinese cities.With the passage of time,the distribution of innovation activities within cities and the overall innovation performance level are gradually improving.From the perspective of innovation output level,Chinese cities are showing a downward trend in the east,middle and west,and cities in the south are stronger than those in the north.The level of innovation agglomeration is stronger in the central and western regions than in the east,and the northern cities are also slightly stronger than the south.Second,there is a certain correlation between the distribution difference of innovation activities within the city and the overall innovation performance.Further combining the spatial structure factors,it is not difficult to find that the urban economic density,geometric shape and multi center may have a correlation with the level of innovation output and innovation agglomeration.(2)Urban spatial structure will have a significant impact on innovation performance,and a stable compact urban structure can significantly promote urban innovation development.We found that: first,the high-density regional concentration distribution in the city can significantly improve the urban innovation performance;Second,the irregular and loose urban geometry is not conducive to the growth of urban innovation;Third,the excessive polycentricity of cities will not play a positive role in encouraging innovation,but will damage the innovative development of various industries within the city.Fourth,the high-density agglomeration of urban blocks can significantly improve the performance of enterprise innovation,and the vertical expansion development represented by skyscrapers can enhance the growth of enterprise innovation performance by improving the agglomeration advantage.(3)The urban spatial structure will eventually play a role in innovation by influencing the formation of geographical spatial barriers and agglomeration within the city.We find that: first,urban spatial structure will improve or worsen the commuting accessibility in the city by increasing/reducing the geographical distance between knowledge individuals in the city,affect the face-to-face communication and matching of innovation individuals,and ultimately affect the intensity of knowledge spillover.Second,the variation of spatial structure will also affect the formation of urban agglomeration.A compact spatial structure can promote the further expansion of the scale of urban agglomeration.On the contrary,it is difficult to form a stable agglomeration structure,and there is a shortage of significant agglomeration centers.In this way,innovative individuals will also face large geographical and spatial obstacles.More importantly,the scale of localized knowledge impact is relatively small,It is difficult for innovative individuals to match innovative knowledge elements for R&D.(4)Traffic infrastructure construction,urban scale and industrial layout can play a regulatory role in the impact of spatial structure.We found that: first,from the perspective of transportation infrastructure,whether the city tends to compact or loose spatial structure,sound transportation infrastructure within the city can play a positive role,which can strengthen the positive impact of urban internal agglomeration development,and alleviate the negative externalities caused by geographical space obstacles.Second,the city is experiencing a dynamic process of expansion from small to large.In the later period of urban development,it may naturally move towards a loose spatial development model.However,as elements continue to converge to the city,the positive effect of the spatial structure will be strengthened and the negative impact will be mitigated;Third,from the perspective of industry development,relatively mature and technology intensive industries can often gain advantages in agglomeration,so these industries may be relatively stronger in terms of spatial structure.Finally,we combine the basic conclusions drawn with the form of urban development in China,and believe that in the process of urbanization development planning and the promotion and implementation of the new urbanization strategy,China’s urban planning departments should not only focus on outward expansion and increase the size of the city,but also pay appropriate attention to the internal spatial structure of the city,and select the latest data to observe the internal spatial structure of the city from multiple perspectives,Adhere to the principle of flexible compactness,optimize the internal spatial structure of the city,and achieve healthy and stable regional innovative development and long-term economic growth.