Characterization of Territorial Spatial Agglomeration Based on POI Data: A Case Study of Ningbo City, China

Territorial space is a valuable resource, and it is the home on which human beings depend for their survival and development. However, due to disorder, excessive and decentralized development, resource constraints are tightening, ecological environment deterioration, regional development imbalance and other prominent problems. Agglomeration development has become the strategic choice of territorial space development in China. Therefore, understanding the agglomeration characteristics of territorial space is helpful for local governments to carry out territorial spatial planning. Based on POI (point of interest) data, the method of spatial point pattern analysis is used to characterize the territorial spatial agglomeration in Ningbo city. We found that the elliptic center of Ningbo’s territorial space is distributed in Haisu district. The whole trend is along the “northwest to southeast” direction, and there is a significant directionality. The entire territorial space presents spatial agglomeration, and the agglomeration characteristics of the commercial space are more significant. Moreover, there is a spatial scale effect on the agglomeration of territorial space, which changes with the geographical distance attenuation and presents an inverted “U” structure. With Sanjiangkou as the core, the agglomeration hotspots of all levels distribute in a gradient manner, and the spatial differentiation of “center-periphery” is obvious. The characteristics of its spatial distribution are “river-oriented” and “sea-oriented”. In conclusion, the locking effect of a single center is still significantly higher than the evacuation “magnetic force” of multiple centers in Ningbo city. In the future, we should effectively disperse the densely clustered areas in the central urban area, and focus on cultivating peripheral sub-centers/groups to enhance the positive interaction between multiple centers.