Spatial Effects of Railway Network Construction on Urban Sprawl and Its Mechanisms: Evidence from Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, China

Urban sprawl has become a notable feature in China. Previous studies have found that railway development has a significant effect on urban sprawl. However, the detailed mechanisms of how railways affect urban sprawl have not been studied in depth. Furthermore, China’s railway system has already formed a network. The network status of cities within the railway network may affect urban sprawl, but few studies have examined this factor. In this context, to explore the effects of railway networks on urban sprawl and the mechanisms of these effects, this study applied the social network analysis (SNA) method to measure the indicators of railway network characteristics and conducted panel model regression with the above indicators using the data from 26 cities from 2011 to 2019 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Railway network construction has a significantly positive impact on urban sprawl through the network agglomeration and diffusion mechanisms. (2) The network agglomeration mechanism improves the location condition of the central cities on the railway network, which encourages urban sprawl as an agglomeration pattern. (3) The network diffusion mechanism enhances the integration of the peripheral cities with the central city on the railway network, which encourages urban sprawl as a diffusion pattern. The network diffusion mechanism is heterogeneous in metropolitan areas (MAs) for the different levels of central city agglomeration. The findings provide a reference for railway construction and urban planning.