An exact statistical method for analyzing co-location on a street network and its computational implementation

In many central districts in cities across the world, different types of stores form clusters resulting from the benefits of spatial agglomeration. To precisely analyze co-location relationships in a micro-scale space, this study develops a new statistical method by addressing the limitations of the ordinary cross K function method. The objectives of this paper are, first, to formulate an exact statistical method for analyzing co-location along streets in a central district constrained by a street network; second, to implement this statistical method in computational procedures. Third, this method is extended to the analysis of repulsive-location, i.e. phenomena of stores locating repulsively among different types of stores. Fourth, the paper shows a graph-theoretic diagram illustrating the spatial structure of stores in a central district consisting of bilateral, unilateral co-location and repulsive-location. Last, the proposed method is applied to eight different types of stores in a trendy district in Tokyo. The results show that the method is useful for revealing the spatial structure consisting of co-location and repulsive-location in the central district.