Wang Jiaoe

Understanding relationship between accessibility and economic growth: a case study from China (1990–2010)

China′s economy and transport infrastructure have both experienced rapid development since 1978, and especially since 1990. Today, China is the second-largest economic entity in terms of GDP and has the largest high-speed rail (HSR) network and the second-largest expressway network in the world. This paper explores the relationship between accessibility and economic growth in China from 1990 to 2010. In the study, the basic research units include 333 prefecture-level cities and four municipalities. We explore a bivariate analysis framework of accessibility and economic growth, and their increase rates, to examine this relationship using long-term panel data. The results indicate that, first, accessibility and economic growth show a significant positive relationship using both cross-section and panel data, while the increase rate in accessibility and GDP indicate no significant relationship using cross-section data and a poor significant relationship using panel data. Second, the distributions of local advantage are uneven. Cities with low local advantage with respect to accessibility and GDP are mainly located in China′s eastern coastal region or the provincial capitals, while those with low local advantage in terms of their increase rates are located in the western region. Third, as China′s economic growth and transport networks have evolved, the distribution of local advantage shows little change in terms of accessibility and GDP, but a greater change in terms of their increase rates, which is largely influenced by the distribution of expressway and HSR networks.

Complexity Perspectives on Transportation Network

Based on analyzing complex network theory applied in aviation,railway and urban transportation,we conclude that complexity of transportation network comes from its systematic complexity,and that the general analysis method of complex network ignores the attribute of geo-graphic space,which brings out many problems in analyzing real-world network.Complex network analysis based on statistical physics is mostly about theoretical analysis or data modeling on topol-ogy network,which has greater disparity in transportation networks and dynamic mechanism.Transportation network includes four kinds of network structure:demand network,organization network,route network and infrastructure network,and is a compound networked structure with open complex system.Transportation is a kind of science which focuses strongly on practical ap-plication,so it needs a recurrent force to drive theory to modal and method,then to practice.We put forward in future some vital aspects of complexity analysis on transportation network,which includes(1)elemental recognition on the structure complexity of transportation system;(2)network complex analysis based on geographic spatial characteristics;(3)analysis and application of net-work structure based on organization and efficiency;(4)interplay between the network structure and flow caused by interaction;(5)character of local structure of network and its effect on global structure;and(6)network evolution affected by systemic open.