A study on the influencing mechanisms of grid-based urban vitality in historic districts based on MGWR: A case study of the Qiasayawage historic district in Kashgar
Against the background of quality and efficiency improvement in built-up area renewal, clarifying the small-scale mechanisms influencing urban vitality is of practical significance for improving spatial quality and guiding conservation planning in historic and cultural districts. However, most existing studies remain focused on macro urban scales and single-model applications, while micro-scale spatial characteristics and inter-model differences have received insufficient attention. Taking the QiasaYawage Historic and Cultural District, a high-density district with distinct Islamic cultural characteristics, as the research object, this study introduces the grassroots governance unit of “grid” into the spatial analysis framework. Multi-source data are integrated, and spatial auto correlation analysis and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) are applied to examine the influencing factors and spatial heterogeneity of district vitality. The results show that: (1) district vitality presents a ring-like structure that increases from the center to the periphery, with evident spatial differentiation, and grids 3-1 and 1-5 show the highest vitality levels; (2) the MGWR model shows better fitting performance, with a significantly higher R² than the OLS and GWR models and a markedly lower AICc value, indicating a certain explanatory advantage in small-scale vitality research of historic and cultural districts, although the results should be interpreted cautiously due to sample size limitations; (3) POI mix, historical memory point density, and human-oriented facility density have the most significant effects on district vitality; and (4) the effects of the same factors vary across different grids, which is related to the district's distinctive arid climate and Islamic cultural context. Based on the influence directions of key factors such as POI mix, human-oriented facility density, and historical memory point density, vitality improvement paths are proposed, including increasing composite POI supply, improving convenient public service facilities, and promoting the open use of historical memory points.
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