{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T18:38:58Z","timestamp":1772735938836,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,10]],"date-time":"2023-04-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1681084800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["LTGG23D010002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LTGG23D010002"]}]},{"name":"Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["41801297"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41801297"]}]},{"name":"Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["20032312-Y"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20032312-Y"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["LTGG23D010002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LTGG23D010002"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41801297"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41801297"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["20032312-Y"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20032312-Y"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Science Foundation of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (ZSTU)","award":["LTGG23D010002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LTGG23D010002"]}]},{"name":"Science Foundation of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (ZSTU)","award":["41801297"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41801297"]}]},{"name":"Science Foundation of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (ZSTU)","award":["20032312-Y"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20032312-Y"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Delving into the spatiotemporal evolution of the railway network in different periods can provide guidance and reference for the planning and layout of the railway network. However, most of the existing studies tended to model the railway data separately and compare the network indices of adjacent periods based on the railway data of different periods, thus failing to integrate the railway network in different periods into a unified framework for evolution analysis. Therefore, this paper used the railway data from 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2019, and analyzed the spatiotemporal integration of the railway network evolution based on the complex network theory and the self-organizing maps (SOM) method. Firstly, this study constructed the geographical railway network in the four years and probed into how the network feature indices changed. Then, it used the SOM method to capture the spatiotemporal integration of the railway network evolution in multi-time series. Finally, it clustered the change trajectory of each city node and unveiled the relationship between the evolution of city nodes and the hierarchy of urban systems. The results show that from 2008 to 2019, the railway network feature indices showed an upward trend and that the expansion pattern of the railway network could be divided into the core\u2013peripheral pattern, belt expansion pattern, strings of beads pattern, and multi-center network pattern. The evolution of the change trajectory of the city nodes was highly related to the hierarchical structure of the urban system. This study helps to understand the evolution process of the railway network in China, and provides decision-making reference for improving and optimizing China\u2019s railway network.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi12040161","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,10]],"date-time":"2023-04-10T07:11:43Z","timestamp":1681110703000},"page":"161","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Spatiotemporal Evolution Analysis of the Chinese Railway Network Structure Based on Self-Organizing Maps"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Lingzhi","family":"Yin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Technology (School of Artificial Intelligence), Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yafei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ress.2012.03.017","article-title":"Maintenance management of railway infrastructures based on reliability analysis","volume":"104","author":"Macchi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Reliab. 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