Abstract:

Urban metro is increasingly becoming the most important component shaping sustainable urban spatial structure and daily life in China; consequently, the number of studies conducted on urban metro network planning has increased rapidly during the last decades. These studies have primarily focused on enhancing operational efficiency to achieve certain keytechnical objectives. However, little attention has been paid to studying the spatial synergy between the urban metro network and public amenities, even though this is crucial to the promotion of social equity intransportation and facilities planning. Improving the role of metro networks to facilitate greater access to public amenities could encourage better utilization by the urban population. The importance of leveraging metro networks to promote the use of and access to leisure amenities would subsequently result in a higher quality of life. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate spatial synergy to the planning and evaluation of urban metro networks. Using the city of Shenzhen to conduct the case study, this research aims to evaluate the spatial synergy between urban metro networks and leisure amenities indifferent network construction phases. The Shenzhen metro planning and construction project involved three phases, i.e., PhaseⅡ(2004-2011), PhaseⅢ-1 (2011-2016), and PhaseⅢ-2 (2016-2020). Using the ArcGIS 10.4 software platform, an optimized two-step floating catchment area method was used to build an evaluation model. The results were analyzed using spatial visualization and graphical representation in the form of a Lorenz Curve. First, the findings show that the accessibility of metro-based leisure amenities in urban metros has been continually improving over time. The accessibility there of in suburban areas has been decreasing, but this trend is gradually being reversed with the renewed focus on metro networks in suburban areas.The synergy gap has been widening particularly during phaseⅡand phaseⅢ-1 butis expected to narrow in the upcoming Phase Ⅲ-2. Second, the top 50% of communities ranked onthe basis of accessibility of metro-based leisure amenitiesaccount for 25% of the total municipal territory and 40% of the residential population. Urban metro network expansion will facilitate more equitable access and better quality of life forthe population. The root cause of the inequality is primarily the spatially unbalanced population distribution across urban spaces. Third, it is essential to highlight areas which exhibitthe largest mismatch in terms of the metro station networks, leisure amenities, and population distribution. For instance, the Luohu district facilitates significantly better accessibility to metro-based leisure amenities compared to that available via the metro network coverage across the urban area. This implies that the majority of leisure amenities in the Luohu district have been connected by metro lines. On the contrary, a large portion of the leisure amenities in the Nanshan district were not previously accessible by metro. This changed when new metro lines extending to the southern part of the Nanshan district were built, enabling access to sufficient leisure amenities. This study clarified thespatial synergy between urban metro construction and leisure amenities. Understanding this synergy will facilitate better accessibility, efficiency, and equity among different segments when the station locations are decided, network planning is conducted, and sites are selected for new leisure amenities.

Key words: Leisure amenities, metro line, accessibility, two-step floating catchment area method, synergy evaluation