Identification and Characterization of Production–Living–Ecological Space in a Central Urban Area Based on POI Data: A Case Study for Wuhan, China

Cities are the main carriers of high population agglomeration and socio-economic activities and are also the areas where contradictions among production, living, and ecological space are concentrated. Effective identification of production–living–ecological space is conducive to the balanced and sustainable development of urban space. First, this paper analyzes the formation mechanism and connotation of urban production–living–ecological space and constructs the classification system of point-of-interest (POI) data. Then, it identifies the production–living–ecological space in the central urban area of Wuhan effectively by using the analytic hierarchy process, spatial analysis method, and the quadrat proportion method and verifies the accuracy of production–living–ecological space by the sampling verification method. Last but not least, it adopts spatial auto-correlation analysis and Geo-detector to reveal spatial heterogeneity and its driving factors. The results indicate that: (1) The overall accuracy of the identification accuracy test of production–living–ecological space in Wuhan is 92.86%. (2) There is a significant spatial correlation among production space, living space, and ecological space in the central urban area of Wuhan with living space being the dominant space and production space the secondary space intersected and embedded in the north and south banks of the Yangtze River. (3) Results of the analysis of the driving factor show that elements comprising life services, corporate enterprises, and scenic spots play a leading role in realizing the living space, the production space, and the ecological space, respectively, and the interactions between these elements have a significant driving effect on the three types of space. The results prove that POI big data are more scientific and practical in urban spatial planning, and it can provide a useful reference for the sustainable development of spatial planning.