Mesoscale Structure in Urban–Rural Mobility Networks in the Pearl River Delta Area: A Weighted Stochastic Block Modeling Analysis

Abstract

Understanding the spatial structure of a megaregion with urban and rural areas is crucial for promoting sustainable urbanization and urban–rural integration. Compared to the city network (or the network of urban areas), however, fewer studies focus on the network connecting rural areas or on the comparison of regional structures between urban and rural networks. Using weighted daily mobility flows from the massive mobile-phone signaling data, this study constructs an urban–urban mobility (UUM) network and an urban–rural mobility (URM) network in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. A weighted stochastic block model (WSBM) was adopted to identify and compare the latent mesoscale structures in the two networks. Results investigated a gradient community mesoscale structure nested with typical core–periphery (CP) structures in the UUM network and an asymmetric bipartite mesoscale structure mixed with CP hierarchies in the URM network. In a comparison of the different spatial configuration of urban/rural nodes and groupings of their roles, positions, and linkages, the study yielded empirical insights for renewed urban–rural interaction and potential planning pathways towards urban–rural integration.