Abstract
Shanghai's old industrial areas have witnessed the city's industrial civilization, which has an important historical and humanistic significance and is one of the important bases for citizens' recognition and sense of belonging. With the advent of the "post-industrial" era, the production function of traditional industrial areas is gradually being weakened, while the renewal of these old industrial areas that occupy important locations has become the focus of revitalization. Meanwhile, commercial vitality, as a branch of urban vitality, has become an important indicator of urban economic prosperity and a key factor affecting city livability and competitiveness. This paper evaluates and studies the benefits of each renewal process from the perspective of commercial vitality. Twenty-four old industrial areas in Shanghai that completed renewal between 2016 and 2018 are selected as the research subjects. Multi-dimensional samples from multiple platforms are collected, such as Gaode Map, Dianping.com, and Lianjia.com. An evaluation system is constructed to evaluate the commercial vitality change according to existing literatures, based on three aspects: commercial facilities, consumer activities, and potential economic value. Subsequently, the correlation analysis of each influential factor index with the overall evaluation score of the change in commercial vitality and each sub-index is conducted by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis from two dimensions: external factors and internal factors. Then the mechanism of each influential factor on the change in commercial vitality is researched by using methods such as Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and point biserial correlation coefficient. Finally, strategic suggestions are made for the renewal of old industrial areas in terms of the utilization of historical and cultural resources, the interaction with the neighboring urban environment, and the function and spatial design of the project interior. The study found that the commercial vitality of each old industrial area and its surroundings showed an overall increase after the renewal, which was significantly reflected in the number of commercial facilities, rents of stores and offices, and second-hand property transaction unit prices. Among the 10 categories of factors, two external factors, namely locational advantage and the function of the surrounding areas, as well as three internal factors, namely, functional forms, spatial sharing and events, are highly correlated with the evaluation score of the commercial vitality change. Among the secondary influencing factors, three external factors, namely distance to the city-level commercial center, the proportion and type of active areas in the neighboring areas, and four internal factors, namely the diversity of the internal functions, the type of visitors, the neighboring residents visiting the site, and the holding of external activities, are "sensitive influencing factors" that affect the improvement of commercial vitality.
