The Location and Built Environment of Cultural and Creative Industry in Hangzhou, China: A Spatial Entropy Weight Overlay Method Based on Multi-Source Data

Abstract

Quantitative identification of the location of cultural and creative industries has always been an important issue in the study of micro-locations in human geography. However, most of the previous studies on the location of cultural and creative industries focused on the macro description of the existing cultural and creative industry and lacked quantitative identification of micro-locations suitable for cultivating and developing cultural and creative industries. Therefore, based on the relevant location theory of cultural and creative industries, the urban creative field strength and its quantitative model are proposed. From the perspective of the built environment, 500 m × 500 m grids were established as analysis units based on multi-source data, including society, economy and geography data, using the geographic information system (GIS) analysis technology and spatial entropy weight overlay method to describe and visualize the micro-locations of urban cultural and creative industries. Based on the empirical study in Hangzhou, the following can be concluded: (1) the study method of “single index measurement–entropy method weighting–space weighted summation–hot spot analysis” constructed can quantitatively identify the micro-location of urban cultural and creative industries. It proves that the research framework proposed is scientifically valid. (2) The overall field strength of the creative field in Hangzhou has a circular structure with multiple centers, gradually decreasing outward from the main urban area of Hangzhou, with the sub-centers of the creative field scattered around the core urban area. The most suitable location for the cultivation and development of cultural and creative industries in Hangzhou is located in Wensan District as the core area, which includes Wensan Road, Xueyuan Road, Wulin Square, Hangzhou Future City-Xixi Wetland, etc. (3) The location around the provincial/city/district government land is the core area of creative field strength, which is more suitable for the development of cultural and creative industries. The farther from the core area, the smaller the creative field strength is, and the more obvious the attenuation of distance is.

Assessing Industrial Past and Cultural Changes in Industrial Lands along the Hangzhou Section of the Grand Canal in China

“…In Hangzhou, after the rapid process of economic development and deindustrialization, some factories, constructions, or plants deployed along the Canal were closed or demolished, and the surviving ones were constructed as cultural resources and shaped as cultural attractions characterized with ancient Chinese style rather than an industrial past. Furthermore, today, more than 60% of the creative industries and zones in Hangzhou have been transformed via industrial heritage, but few of them have improved public awareness of how Hangzhou has been shaped by its Canal industrial history, or offered the novel cultural experience of industrial heritage tourism [27], which has caused great cultural loss. Therefore, these fragmented, irrelevant, discarded, and ostensible reuses of industrial heritage have almost certainly produced fraudulent information and caused cultural damage, presenting the typically complicated relationship between heritage values and urban cultural development [28] In this regard, reasons justifying this could safely be concluded as follows: (1) To stress the long age of the Canal and its cultural heritage.…”