Page 135 - JCAU-7-2

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Urban features of Lingnan town analyzed

using multi-source online image: A case study
of 81 central towns in the Pearl River Delta,

Guangdong, China

Min Xu * , Miaoxi Zhao 1,2† , and Tengxiao Xie 1
1†
1 School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building and Urban Science, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Abstract

The advancement of digital technology has greatly improved the accessibility and
convenience of public participation via the internet, enabling the quantitative
† These authors contributed equally
to this work. evaluation of urban imagery. To quantitatively analyze urban features from an
internet-based perspective, this study integrates image and text data from 81 central
*Corresponding author:
Xu Min towns in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong, China, selected based on their eligibility
(202210180910@mail.scut.edu.cn) for image retrieval from search engines. By examining the relationships between
image types, high-frequency words, and regional spatial patterns, the study identifies
Citation: Xu, M., Zhao, M., &
Xie, T. (2025). Urban features of typological differences among the towns, aiming to systematically categorize and
Lingnan town analyzed using multi- comprehensively evaluate their urban landscape characteristics. Building on Kevin
source online image: A case study Lynch’s city image theory, this article presents a detailed exploration and empirical
of 81 central towns in the Pearl
River Delta, Guangdong, China. analysis of urban image, specifically focusing on small- and medium-sized towns in
Journal of Chinese Architecture and the Lingnan region.
Urbanism, 7(2): 5733.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.5733
Received: October 30, 2024 Keywords: Town image; Central town; Pearl river delta; Types; Landscape characteristics
1st revised: December 3, 2024
2nd revised: December 18, 2024
1. Introduction
Accepted: December 30, 2024
Published online: February 20, Since Kevin Lynch proposed the theory of city image in 1960 (Lynch, 1960), numerous
2025 scholars, including Donald Appleyard (1928 – 1982) (Appleyard, 1969), Donata
Francescato (Francescato & Webane, 1973), Gary Evans (Evans et al., 1982), Xun Li (Li
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an open-access article and Xu, 1993), Fang Xu (Xu, 1983), Yulian Lin (Lin, 1999), and Chaolin Gu (Gu and
distributed under the terms of the Song, 2001), have used this theory to explore urban design and planning. Empirical
Creative Commons Attribution- studies have demonstrated city images for Milan, Rome, and Beijing, and the cognitive
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all mapping approach central to Lynch’s theory has become one of the most commonly used
non-commercial use, distribution, methods for analyzing social data related to urban environments (Lee & Schmidt, 1988).
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is Lynch argued that while city images are influenced by the culture and customs
properly cited. of a place, there are common perceptual features that allow urban researchers to
Publisher’s Note: AccScience systematically categorize these images. He likened this process to the work of an
Publishing remains neutral with archeologist, extrapolating potential patterns from existing types (Lynch, 1960). This
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional theory laid the foundation for the study of city imagery, spurring ongoing research and
affiliations. methodology development (Wu, 1988; Xu, 2012; Zhao et al., 2015).

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2025) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.5733