The Changes Of The Urban Networks In Zhejiang Province Before And After The COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid development of communication,Internet technologies,as well as the transformation of transportation infrastructure,has greatly expanded people’s space of maneuver,which has also accelerated the circulation of materials,labor,capital,and information between cities,and therefore facilitated the establishment of an urban-centered network structure.The outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020,however,has created a significant impact on both the direction and the intensity of population flows,considering that both the central and local state initiated a variety of policies forestalling the free movement of people in order to cope with the epidemic situation.This impact,arguably,can much affect the established urban network structure.This study of Zhejiang’s urban network structure under the new situation has important research significance.Through using mobile phone signaling data from China Mobile,This study adopted social network analysis with the aim to conceptualize the transition of the urban network structure of Zhejiang.Through analyzing its network density,network hierarchical characteristics,cohesive subgroups,and urban centrality changes before and after the COVID-19,combined with the population size of districts and counties,government capacity,economic scale and structure.This thesis discussed the reasons for the changes in economic scale and structure.Findings of the thesis is shown as following:(1)The overall density of the city network in Zhejiang Province is relatively high,and the communication between the districts and counties within the province is close,and the city network has developed well.However,after the COVID-19,the overall density of the city’s network has declined,the links between districts and counties have been significantly reduced,the stability of the network structure needs to be improved.(2)After the COVID-19,the urban network of Zhejiang Province has developed from a balanced development to a polarization,and the core positions of Hangzhou,Ningbo,and Wenzhou in the network have become more prominent.The network aggregation centers are concentrated in the southeast,and the ability of population connections in the central and western regions has declined significantly and there is a lack of important connection nodes.(3)The direction and intensity of population flow between districts and counties in Zhejiang Province changed after the COVID-19.In the direction of flow,the spatial position changes from long-distance flow to short-distance flow.In terms of flow intensity,the strength of links between most districts and counties has declined,and the strength of links between some districts and counties has increased.(4)The changes of urban network in Zhejiang Province before and after the COVID-19 showed obvious differences between districts and counties,and the population size,government capacity,economic scale and structure between districts and counties explained these differences to a certain extent.Overall,after the COVID-19,counties with a large population,high total fiscal revenue,high regional GDP,and a high proportion of the tertiary industry will increase their status in the network,while counties with a high proportion of the secondary industry will have a position in the network.The academic novelty of this study lies in:First,to form the urban population flow between research depends on social survey data,the more there is limitation on the hysteresis and statistical inaccuracy,this article uses the real-time mobile signaling data,can more accurately reflect the characteristics of the current "population flow" space and urban complex interactions between relations,based on the population of big data flow study provides added.Second,different from the static perspective of previous urban network studies,this study analyzes the changes of network characteristics in different periods and the reasons for the changes by taking advantage of the spatial-temporal dynamic properties of mobile signaling big data,which to some extent makes up the gap in the current research on the influence mechanism of urban network.The practical significance of this study is that by developing concepts of urban network structure in Zhejiang Province before and after the epidemic,and providing data evidences of the current equilibrium degree between cities and countries within Zhejiang Province,with policy implications on developing a balanced urban network structure in the post-epidemic era.