Land-use specific spatiotemporal scaling laws of urban vitality dynamics: Evidence from 30 Chinese cities

Urban vitality is a core attribute of livable, attractive, and sustainable cities. Studies have explored the spatiotemporal patterns of urban vitality and scaling laws in urban systems. However, whether scale-invariant vitality dynamics vary systematically across land-use categories, and how these functional scaling structures relate to the built environment, remain unclear. This paper uses mobility-derived vitality data from 25 officially designated working days across 30 Chinese cities to investigate land-use-specific spatiotemporal scaling laws at grid and concentric-ring scales, and further examines the allometric relationships between built-environment factors and vitality fluctuations, as well as their nonlinear associations with the temporal scaling exponent. We find robust spatiotemporal scaling laws and systematic differences in scaling regimes across residential, employment, public-service, and transportation spaces, characterized by distinct temporal persistence and spatial attenuation. Moreover, the coupling between built-environment conditions and vitality fluctuations varies across temporal scales, while their associations with the temporal scaling exponent exhibit nonlinear, thresholded, and land-use-specific patterns. By extending scaling-law analysis to land-use-specific vitality dynamics, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of urban functions in vitality organization and provides actionable insights for fine-grained urban governance.