Unraveling urban problem patterns in Zhejiang: Evolutionary trajectories and driving factors based on public complaint data

Abstract

This study systematically investigates the formation, evolution, and drivers of urban problem patterns across 87 county-level administrative units in Zhejiang Province, China. By classifying approximately 3.5 million public complaints into 37 distinct categories, urban problem distributions in these counties are quantified from 2018 to 2022. The cluster analysis reveals seven distinct problem patterns: pollution and municipal infrastructure, consumer protection, land use, housing purchase, garbage management, financial service, and pandemic control, which exhibit marked temporal persistence and spatial clustering. Using fuzzy logic to calculate membership degrees, the evolution of problem patterns exhibits predictable trajectories: emerging patterns showed consistent growth, while dominant patterns gradually declined, with occasional deviations. Analysis of eight socioeconomic factors indicates that development-driven patterns—land use, housing purchase, and consumer protection—are strongly correlated with socioeconomic indicators such as land acquisition area, property sales volume, and retail activity, necessitating enhanced regulatory oversight of economic activities. Trend-driven patterns, exemplified by pollution and municipal infrastructure problems, correlate less with short-term fluctuations and more with stable socioeconomic conditions, underscoring the importance of systematic planning and coordinated interventions to mitigate structural regional imbalances. Event-driven patterns, including garbage management, financial service, and pandemic control, demonstrate minimal association with socioeconomic factors, indicating their susceptibility to notable events and highlighting the need for rapid crisis management.