Recreational Business District boundary identifying and spatial structure influence in historic area development: A case study of Qianmen area, China

Tourism development is a useful strategy in historic area renewal, especially for Recreational Business District (RBD) development. However, there is also a challenge in maintaining a balance between protection and development. This study aims to put forward a method to identify the boundary of RBD based on Internet big data in a famous historic area in China. To reconcile heritage conservation with people's behavior, the authors applied a space syntax method to obtain an understanding of space in this historic area and explored the relationship between spatial structure and RBD development based on the axial map in a series of time periods: 1950, 1990, 2002 and 2016. The authors found that RBD has spatial advantages for aggregating people flows and subsequent business in the historic area. Additionally, a positive influence between spatial structure and RBD development was found. Finally, some proposals for balancing between historic preservation and RBD development were put forth.