Applicable Framework for Evaluating Urban Vitality with Multiple-Source Data: Empirical Research of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration Using BPNN

Urban vitality is a mirror reflection of 'urban disease' in cities. The research on urban vitality has made great progress in evaluation frameworks; however, these frameworks cannot jointly account for the macro and micro performance of urban vitality. It is better to establish an integrated evaluation framework for this topic. This paper defines urban vitality as the comprehensive strength to support dense and diverse activities based on urban development and the urban environment, and subsequently develops an integrated framework including economic, social, cultural, and spatial dimensions. With the nonlinear evaluation model of a back propagation neural network, we further presented the result of an application on the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. Our profiling results illustrate the core-edge structure of urban vitality. There are differences in vitality performance within built-up areas, which shows that areas with urban landscapes and excellent infrastructure are more vibrant. The integrated framework with good applicability improves the evaluation of urban vitality that is crucial to city examination and urban planning. Hence, this study provides a comprehensive reference for optimizing resource allocation and promoting sustainable development.