Role of mountains and rivers in the formation of logistics enterprises’ spatial pattern in the central urban areas of Chongqing

• Published in: Journal of mountain science 2022-07, Vol.19 (7), p.2060-2074
• Main Authors: Liu, Si-jing, Zhu, Cheng-jia, He, Nan-nan, Li, Guo-qi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agglomeration; Altitude; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Environment; Geography; Landforms; Logistics; Low altitude; Mountains; Original Article; Residential location; Rivers; Sea level; Spatial analysis; Urban areas; Urban development; Urban sprawl
• ISSN: 1672-6316; 1993-0321; 1008-2786
• DOI: 10.1007/s11629-021-7229-x

The complex landforms of a Shan-shui City (Shan-shui refers to mountains and rivers) significantly impact the selection of locations for logistics enterprises. This paper takes Chongqing, one of the most typical Shan-shui Cities in China, as the research object, and adopts spatial analysis methods and a mediating effect model, to explore the role of mountains and rivers in the formation of logistics enterprises’ spatial pattern on the street scale. The study results reveal that 90% of the logistics enterprises in the central urban areas of Chongqing are located in the low-altitude area below 353m above sea level, and distributed in a north-south direction along the mountains, as a result of blockage by mountain ranges, such as those of Zhongliang Mountain and Tongluo Mountain. More than 70% of the logistics enterprises are located less than 5 km from either the Yangtze River or Jialing River, spreading along the rivers. In addition, more than half of the logistics enterprises in commercial and financial, and residential land are located within the urban core area, while 80.83% of the logistics enterprises located in warehousing land and industrial land are concentrated in the urban expansion area. In areas with high land prices, the negative effect of altitude on logistics enterprise agglomeration is weakened, while the promotion effect of river proximity on logistics enterprise agglomeration is enhanced. In the urban core area with the advantage of low altitude and proximity to the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, the role of mountains and rivers on logistics enterprises is not apparent; in contrast, in the urban expansion area with more complex landforms, land price can be an effective means for the government to macro-manage the spatial pattern of logistics enterprises in a Shan-shui City.