Spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility analysis of characteristic towns in Guangdong Province based on Ripley's K function

Abstract: Characteristic towns are an essential focus for developing new urbanization and implementing rural revitalization in China. Studying its spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors is of great significance for the scientific and rational cultivation and deployment of characteristic towns and promotion of the integrated development of urban and rural areas. The spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility of 142 characteristic towns in Guangdong Province were investigated using Ripley's K function and kernel density estimation. The results show that: (1) The characteristic towns in Guangdong Province present the overall spatial distribution characteristics of "the Pearl River Delta region" and the local distribution characteristics of multi-core diffusion in "Eastern Guangdong" and "Western Guangdong"; (2)  The spatial distribution of Industrial development, cultural tourism type, innovative and creative characteristic towns shows significant agglomeration, whereas the agglomeration characteristics of agricultural service-oriented and commercial and trade circulation-oriented characteristic towns are not significant; (3) Population, economy, resources and location are the main factors affecting the spatial distribution of Characteristic Towns in Guangdong Province; (4) The overall spatial accessibility of characteristic towns in Guangdong Province is relatively good. However, the accessibility of characteristic towns of industrial development is better than that of other types of characteristic towns.