Spatial Morphology of Urban Residential Space: A Complex Network Analysis Integrating Social and Physical Space

Residential areas are primary functional spaces of urban built-up areas, representing urban social structure externally and influencing urban spatial fabric (SF). Chinese cities have increasingly experienced urban renewal following significant population growth and urban expansion in the last four decades. We selected built-up urban areas of Shanghai as the research scope, considering 6731 residential quarters as research objects, which were identified and classified into six types. Based on complex network theory and analysis methods, an urban residential spatial network (URSN) was constructed in central Shanghai implementing through code. The degree of distribution and network robustness of the URSN was examined, and network “communities” were identified. The findings indicate that URSN stability, like robustness, implies harmonious and smooth social interactions and information transfer, consistent with the SDG 11, where the large-degree node residential quarters play an important role and must be prioritized in urban renewal. Meanwhile, the identification results of the URSN “communities” help us understand territory identity in built-up urban areas. This research provides new concepts and methods for examining SF in urban residential areas that integrate “physical” and “social” spaces, compares this approach to the traditional point-axis structure, and pioneers the study of urban SF from the perspective of complex networks by providing a new way of visualizing the spatial relationship between residential quarters as a network-like structure.