2024/04/24 by Byeonghwa Jeong, Jeff Allen, Karen Chapple · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Spatial and Panel Data Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41597-024-03275-3
openalex publication_date 2024/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
The purpose of this study is to define the geographic boundaries of commercial areas by creating a consistent definition, combining various commercial area types, including downtowns, retail centres, financial districts, and other employment subcentres. Our research involved the collection of office, retail and job density data from 69 metropolitan regions across USA and Canada. Using this data, we conducted an unsupervised image segmentation model and clustering methods to identify distinctive commercial geographic boundaries. As a result, we identified 23,751 commercial areas, providing a detailed perspective on the commercial landscape of metropolitan areas in the USA and Canada. In addition, the generated boundaries were successfully validated through comparison with previously established commerce-related boundaries. The output of this study has implications for urban and regional planning and economic development, delivering valuable insights into the overall commercial geography in the region. The commercial boundary and used codes are freely available on the School of Cities Github, and users can reuse, reproduce and modify the boundaries.