Analytical Approaches to High Speed Rail Network in the Development of Polycentric Metropolitan Areas

Urbanism in the world has had a great role in the formation of the concept of urban area. A high ratio of urban population resides in metropolitan areas, and the advancement of transportation and HSR network has changed the concept and dimensions of urban areas. As most of the analyses of urban area development through HSR has been limited to economic studies, this study set out to pay attention to the geographical concept of area and the effects of HSR as a strong policymaking tool in use. In this article, the systematic literature review based on keywords was used to extract the related articles from the most authoritative scientific websites, and then based on the evaluation of abstract, methods, and results sections of the articles, 75 papers published between 1938 to 2022 were selected as the sample. Then, attention was paid to the background and process of the evolution of attitudes and conceptualizations of urban area from the beginning till now. The metropolitan area is discussed based on analytical and normative approach at urban, regional, national, and global levels. With the connection of metropolitan centers to high speed access networks, polycentric development occurs. High speed rail (HSR) has the potential to help evolve the urban network, bring about urban area integrity, and develop new centers. The conceptual explanation of the strategy of creating polycentric metropolitan areas through the expansion of HSR can help expand the connect metropolitan areas, enhance integrity, create specialized cities, creatively use space organization plans, and solve part of the developmental issues.