Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Resilience of Urban Network Structure during the Spring Festival Travel Rush: A Case Study of Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River in China

Abstract

With the increasing trend of globalization, large-scale and diffuse population flow have become vital carriers characterizing users' spatial behaviors. Network analysis provides a new perspective to uncover the topology and evolution of the population flow and understand its influence on regional development. By gathering the Autonavi migration index during the Spring Festival travel rush (SFTR) in 2019, 2020, and 2021, the population flow networks among 31 cities of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River were constructed to analyze spatiotemporal dynamic characteristics and explore the structure resilience. Results show that although the changing trends of population flow during the 40-day SFTR of 2019, 2020, and 2021 are consistent, the population floating scale in 2020 and 2021 shows remarkable abnormalities before and after the Spring Festival due to the need for prevention and control of COVID-19. The intensity of population floating of the regional urban network in 2020 was the weakest, and Changsha became the focus of most population flow, while Wuhan was the most advantageous city in 2019 and 2021. As the third core city in the regional network, the siphon effect of Nanchang was still weak. A situation of tripartite confrontation in the region is formed. However, the higher intensity of population flow in 2021 increased the instability of the regional urban network, potentially exposing the region to higher risks and pressures. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to the peripheral cities to improve regional resilience.