A Novel Index to Measure the Spatial Matching Between Urban Service Facilities Distribution and Population Aggregation

The paper explored matching index for measuring the spatial matching between urban service facilities distribution and population aggregation (PSMI) by integrating kernel density analysis and the coupling coordination index and using point-of-interest (POI) data of 11 categories of service facility and the Baidu heat map, and applied the PSMI to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution and spatial matching of urban service facilities and population aggregation in Lanzhou city. The results show that: (1) There is a high degree of overlap between the population centers during workdays and weekends. Compared with the weekends, workdays have a higher degree of population aggregation, less fluctuation in crowd aggregation, and earlier travel times. (2) The various service facilities exhibit different spatial distribution characteristics, forming a circular-layer structure as a whole. (3) The results of PSMI show that the spatial matching of the transportation facilities and population aggregation was the highest, followed by that of the real estate services and education services, and that of the rental business services was the lowest. In general, the matching index was high at the center and low in the surrounding areas, and it decreased from the inside to the outer circle.