A study on the identification of hub cities and delineation of their catchment areas based on regional interactions

While the competitiveness of small and medium sized cities has become important for balanced development at the national scale, they have experienced continuous decline in population and employment, particularly those in non-capital regions. In addition, some of small and medium sized cities have been classified into shrinking cities that have declined due to their long-term structural reasons. To address these issues, a regional approach, by which a hub city and its surrounding small and medium sized cities can collaborate has been suggested. Given this background, the purpose of this study is to identify and delineate hub cities and their impact areas by using travel data as a functional network index. This study uses a centrality index to identify the hub cities of small and medium sized cities and Markov-chain model and cluster analysis to delineate regional boundaries. The mean first passage time (MFPT) generated from the Markov-chain model can be interpreted as functional distance of each region. The study suggests a methodological approach delineating the boundaries of regions incorporating functional relationships of hub cities and their impact areas, and provides 59 hub cities and their impact areas. The results also provide policy implications for regional spatial planning that addresses appropriate planning boundaries of regions for enhancing the economic competitiveness of small and medium sized cities and ensuring services for shrinking cities.