JOB–HOUSING SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND COMMUTING RELATIONSHIP: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON MOBILE PHONE-SIGNALING DATA IN XI’AN

ABSTRACT Supported by mobile phone-signaling data, this paper integrates spatial analysis technology and social network analysis methods, breaks the restrictions of Xi'an's administrative boundaries, builds a “city-region subgroup” framework for spatial analysis of the job–housing relationship, accurately depicts the characteristics of job- housing space in Xi'an, and explores the commuting relationship between different job–housing spaces. The results show that the job–housing space in Xi'an presents the distribution characteristics of “one city with multiple centers” and the connection characteristics of “horizontally thick and vertically thin.” The commuting connection flow in the study area is mainly concentrated in the central urban area, and this short-distance commuting is the mainstay of the job–housing spatial connection pattern, and most of them are expressed in the form of a triangular closed-loop. There are currently four types of job–housing space commuting relationships in the subgroups formed in Xi'an: a strong interaction balance, a moderate interaction balance, a weak interaction imbalance, and a strong interaction imbalance. Their spatial heterogeneity indicates the necessity for the reorganization of the job–housing function and of the policies appropriate to the local situation.