J.Geogr.Sci.2023,33(3):618-638DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-023-2098-6©2023SciencePressSpringer-VerlagMulti-hierarchicalspatialclusteringforcharacteristictownsinChina:AnOrange-basedframeworktointegrateGISandGeodetectorZHANGZuo1,DOUYuqian1,LIUXiaoge1,*GONGZhe1,21.SchoolofPublicAdministration,CentralChinaNormalUniversity,Wuhan430079,China;2.SchoolofForestryandHorticulture,HubeiMinzuUniversity,Enshi445000,Hubei,ChinaAbstract:AsChina’seconomyandsocietycontinuetoexpand,urbanizationinChinahasreachedanewstage.Inthiscontext,China’scharacteristictowndevelopmentplans,fromthenationaltothelocallevel,provideanewimpetusfortheexpansionoftownsandcities,andcontributetoruralrevitalization.Whenassessingtheuniversalityofregionaldynamics,Chinaexhibitshighdiversityforregionaldevelopment.Thishighlightsacomplexscientificproblemassociatedwithdescribingtheunderlyinglinkagesandinfluencingvariablesbetweendistinctregionalcharacteristictowns.Italsocomplicatestheapplicationoftoolsthatsupportspatialorientationandspatialdecision-making.Toaddressthisproblem,thisstudyproposesacross-platformanalyticalframeworkthatunifiesdata,geographyinformationsystems(GIS),unsupervisedanalysis,visualization,andGeodetector,withOrangeasthecore.Basedonareviewofdistributionpatternsandmulti-hierarchicalspatialclusteringfeatures,thispaperfocusesontheriseofcharacteristictownsinChinaandinvestigatestheprimaryenviron-mentalandhumanfactorsinfluencingspatialheterogeneityinsmalltowns.Thefindingsshowthatthedevelopmentlevelofcharacteristictownsunderthe“city-town”systemvariesacrossChina.Multi-hierarchicalclusteranalysiseffectivelyrevealstheintrinsicfeaturesofcharac-teristictownsandfacilitatesprecisespatially-orienteddecision-makingunderdifferentsce-narios.Intheframeworkofthe“natural-humanistic”and“city-town”systems,theGeodetectoreffectivelymeasuresthespatialstratifiedheterogeneityofeachindicatorinthecharacteristictowns.Thisrevealsaninnerlogicamongthediversenon-linearspatialcorrelations.Ulti-mately,thestudydeeplyinve...
