Analysis of the Variation in Quality of Street Space in Shrinking Cities Based on Dynamic Street View Picture Recognition: A Case Study of Qiqihar

As the focus of urban planning in China changes from incremental planning to stock-based planning, studies of shrinking cities become increasingly important. As the street is one of the basic elements of the study, changes in its spatial quality are essential to evaluating the changes in shrinking cities. This study uses street views from Tencent Maps to evaluate changes in the quality of street space in downtown Qiqihar from 2013 to 2015. The research reveals that the quality of street space in Qiqihar is improving, while the rapid change in first-floor shops suggests a declining economy. Based on this finding, the “Population-economy-space decline lagging phenomenon” is proposed to illustrate the change mode of population, economy, and spatial quality during the shrinking process of the city.