Exploring the Association Between Street Scaling Structure and POI Distributions: Evidence from Shenzhen, China

Urban space exhibits marked heterogeneity in both form and function, yet how urban functions align with multilevel street structures remains insufficiently understood. This study investigates the coupling between street hierarchy and urban functions in Shenzhen through two complementary representations: (1) the relationship between street connectivity and POIs located near each street, and (2) the relationship between street nodes and POIs contained within street-node-based hotspots. Both datasets were hierarchically partitioned using head/tail breaks to reveal intrinsic scaling structures. Power-law detection shows that natural streets and hotspot clusters follow heavy-tailed distributions, forming nested living structures. The exponents for node- and POI-based clusters fall within the typical range of 2.0–2.2, whereas exponents for street connectivity and street-based POIs are higher, indicating stronger heterogeneity. Correlation analyses reveal consistent positive associations between POIs and street connectivity across all levels, with the strongest relationships in mid- to upper-level substructures. Toward finer levels, correlations weaken and become increasingly nonlinear, reflecting growing spatial irregularity. These findings demonstrate that Shenzhen’s urban functions are coherently organized along its street hierarchy, highlighting the fundamental role of multilevel street configurations in shaping functional spatial patterns.