Geo-visualizing China´s changing urban hierarchy 1985 to 2005

In a prior study, a rank mobility index (RMI) was applied to China´s 137 urban agglomerations and mapped using a graduated symbol map to show dramatic changes in China´s urban hierarchy from 1985 to 2005. This paper improves the visualization of those rank changes by applying advanced spatial analysis techniques. We use a Moran´s scatter plot and a Getis-Ord G_i to examine the regional difference and change for these urban agglomerations ranks. We then use a weighted Voronoi diagram (WVD) approach to produce polygons whose size reflects the magnitude of the RMI. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the various geo-visualization approaches.