Comparison of the driving mechanism between logistics land use and facilities: A case study from Wuhan metropolitan area

Investigating the spatial growth patterns and underlying mechanisms driving urban logistics space and activities with scientific quantitative methodologies holds substantial importance in advancing the sustainable development of urban logistics. From a perspective of spatiotemporal dynamics, this study has proposed a multinomial logit (MNL) cellular automata (CA) model to explore the spatial evolution of logistics land use and logistics facility locations in Wuhan metropolitan area from 2010 to 2018. The driving mechanism behind the spatial evolution of logistics in both land use and facilities has been compared in a bidirectional path. The results show that: 1) Both logistics land use and facilities exhibit a suburbanization trend characterized by a “center-periphery” non-equilibrium spread in space, and the evolution pattern of higher development in west and lower development in the east of the Yangtze River. The growth of small-sized facilities has basically formed a self-organizing spatial pattern in line with the structure of residents' demand. 2) The co-location indices (CLI) between logistics land use and facilities have shown a consistent decline from 2010 to 2018. This decline suggests an increasingly pronounced issue of spatial mismatch between logistics land use planning and actual facilities allocation, resulting in an unbalanced allocation of logistics resources and inefficient logistics activities. 3) Both logistics land use and large facilities concentrate in urban fringe areas due to its sensitivity to land price. The small-sized facilities tend to locate in residential area in central region. Finally, policy implications have been provided to guide practical planning and support the sustainable development of logistics.