Exploration of the Industrial Spatial Linkages in Urban Agglomerations: A Case of Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, China

As part of one of the five major national development strategies, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), including the three national-level urban agglomerations (the Cheng-Yu urban agglomeration (CY-UA), the Yangtze River Middle-Reach urban agglomeration (YRMR-UA), and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRD-UA)), plays an important role in China’s urban development and economic construction. However, the rapid economic growth of the past decades has caused frequent regional air pollution incidents, as indicated by high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Therefore, a driving force factor analysis based on the PM2.5 of the whole area would provide more information. This paper focuses on the three urban agglomerations in the YREB and uses exploratory data analysis and geostatistics methods to describe the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of air quality based on long-term PM2.5 series data from 2015 to 2018. First, the main driving factor of the spatial stratified heterogeneity of PM2.5 was determined through the Geodetector model, and then the influence mechanism of the factors with strong explanatory power was extrapolated using the Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) models. The results showed that the number of enterprises, social public vehicles, total precipitation, wind speed, and green coverage in the built-up area had the most significant impacts on the distribution of PM2.5. The regression by MGWR was found to be more efficient than that by traditional Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), further showing that the main factors varied significantly among the three urban agglomerations in affecting the special and temporal features.

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The Evolution of the Urban Spatial Pattern in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: Based on Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10082733 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 2733 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Yang Li ◽

Hua Shao ◽

Nan Jiang ◽

Ge Shi ◽

Xin Cheng

Keyword(s):

Size Distribution ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Size Structure ◽

Urban Land ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Urban Size

The development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is an important national regional development strategy and a strategic engineering development system. In this study, the evolution of urban spatial patterns in the YREB from 1990 to 2010 was mapped using the nighttime stable light (NSL) data, multi-temporal urban land products, and multiple sources of geographic data by using the rank-size distribution and the Gini coefficient method. Through statistical results, we found that urban land takes on the feature of “high in the east and low in the west”. The study area included cities of different development stages and sizes. The nighttime light increased in most cities from 1992 to 2010, and the rate assumed an obvious growth tendency in the three urban agglomerations in the YREB. The results revealed that the urban size distribution of the YREB is relatively dispersed, the speed of urban development is unequal, and the trend of urban size structure shows a decentralized distribution pattern that has continuously strengthened from 1990 to 2010. Affected by factors such as geographical conditions, spatial distance, and development stage, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have developed rapidly, the upper and middle reaches have developed large cities, and a contiguous development trend is not obvious. The evolution of urban agglomerations in the region presents a variety of spatial development characteristics. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai have entered a phase of urban continuation, forming a more mature interregional urban agglomeration, while the YREB inland urban agglomerations are in suburbanization and multi-centered urban areas. At this stage, the conditions for the formation of transregional urban agglomerations do not yet exist, and there are many uncertainties in the boundary and spatial structure of each urban agglomeration.

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Research on the Dynamics and Evolution of Regional Blue-green Space Driven by the Development of World-class Urban Agglomerations

10.21203/rs.3.rs-598367/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ziwu Pan ◽

Jun Zhu ◽

Zhenzhen Liu ◽

Fen Qin

Keyword(s):

Yangtze River ◽

Green Space ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Heat Island ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Island Effect ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Abstract In recent years, the process of urbanization in China has accelerated, and changes in the underlying surface have caused the difference in average temperature between built-up areas and suburbs to increase, resulting in an urban heat island effect, which has become an important environmental issue for today's urban sustainable development. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration region is the fastest-growing region in China, with economically developed and populous cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou. It has become one of the six major urban agglomerations in the world, and its heat island effect is particularly prominent. The single urban heat island phenomenon gradually evolves into the urban agglomeration heat island phenomenon with urbanization. However, the dynamic transfer process of key blue-green space landscapes that can alleviate land surface temperature (LST) and regional thermal environment (RTE) is still poorly understood, especially in the context of urban agglomerations. With the approval of the State Council on the development plan of the Huaihe River Ecological Economic Belt, the construction of which has been officially upgraded to a national strategy. The Eastern HaiJiang River and Lake Linkage Zone (EJRLLZ) emphasizes strengthening the docking and interaction with the surrounding areas such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Wanjiang City Belt. With the diffusion of the heat island effect of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, as one of the areas with great potential development around the world-class urban agglomeration, the rich water body and green space in the ERLLZ area are also destroyed and affected. Therefore, we take this region as a case to further quantify the impact of urbanization and urban agglomeration development on the dynamics and evolution of blue-green space.

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Assessing Ecosystem Services Supply-Demand (Mis)Matches for Differential City Management in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18158130 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (15) ◽

pp. 8130

Author(s):

Wenbo Cai ◽

Wei Jiang ◽

Hongyu Du ◽

Ruishan Chen ◽

Yongli Cai

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

City Management ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Social Demand ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

With the global increase in population and urban expansion, the simultaneous rise of social demand and degradation of ecosystems is omnipresent, especially in the urban agglomerations of China. In order to manage environmental problems and match ecosystem supply and social demand, these urban agglomerations promoted regional socio-ecological integration but ignored differential city management during the process of integration. Therefore, it is necessary to design a general framework linking ecosystem supply and social demand to differential city management. In addition, in previous studies, ecosystem services supply–demand amount (mis)match assessment was emphasized, but ecosystem services supply–demand type (mis)match assessment was ignored, which may lead to biased decisions. To deal with these problems, this study presented a general ecosystem services framework with six core steps for differential city management and developed a double-indices (amount and type) method to identify ecosystem services supply–demand (mis)matches in an urban agglomeration. This framework and the double-indices method were applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration. Ecosystem supply–demand amount and type (mis)match levels and spatial pattern of twenty-six cities were identified. Twenty-six cities in the YRDUA were classified into five kinds of cities with different levels of ES supply–demand (mis)matches for RS, three kinds of cities for PS, and four kinds of cities for CS. Differential city management strategies were designed. Despite its limitations, this study can be a reference to giving insights into ES supply–demand (mis)match assessment and management.

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Ecological Environment Vulnerability and Driving Force of Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11236623 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (23) ◽

pp. 6623 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Peng ◽

Huang ◽

Elahi ◽

Wei

Keyword(s):

Yangtze River ◽

Spatial Clustering ◽

Driving Factors ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Ecological Environment ◽

Driving Mechanism ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Spatial Agglomeration ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Study Results

The vulnerability of ecological environment threatens social and economic development. Recent studies failed to reveal the driving mechanism behind it, and there is little analysis on the spatial clustering characteristics of the vulnerability of urban agglomerations. Therefore, this article estimates ecological environment vulnerability in 2005, 2011, and 2017, determines Moran Index (MI) with spatial autocorrelation model, analyzes the spatial-temporal difference characteristics of ecological environment vulnerability of Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration and the spatial aggregation effect, and discusses its driving factors. The study results estimate that the overall vulnerability index of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration is in a mild fragile state. However, most fragile and slightly fragile cities are developing in the direction of moderate to severe vulnerability. The spatial agglomeration effect of the ecological environment vulnerability of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration is not obvious, and the effect of mutual ecological environment influence among cities is not obvious. Moreover, the driving factors of ecological environment vulnerability of Yangtze River city group changed from natural factors to social economic factors and then to policy factors. It is necessary to develop an ecological economy, coordinate the spatial agglomeration of urban agglomerations, and make balance the internal differences of urban agglomerations.

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Assessment of Ecosystem Health and Its Key Determinants in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration, China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph19020771 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 771

Author(s):

Fengjian Ge ◽

Guiling Tang ◽

Mingxing Zhong ◽

Yi Zhang ◽

Jia Xiao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Ecosystem Health ◽

Urban Land Use ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Surrounding Areas ◽

City Group

Urban agglomerations have gradually formed in different Chinese cities, exerting great pressure on the ecological environment. Ecosystem health is an important index for the evaluation of the sustainable development of cities, but it has rarely been used for urban agglomerations. In this study, the ecosystem health in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration was assessed using the ecosystem vigor, organization, resilience, and services framework at the county scale. A GeoDetector was used to determine the effects of seven factors on ecosystem health. The results show that: (1) The spatial distribution of ecosystem health differs significantly. The ecosystem health in the centers of Wuhan Metropolis, Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan City Group, and Poyang Lake City Group is significantly lower than in surrounding areas. (2) Temporally, well-level research units improve gradually; research units with relatively weak levels remain relatively stable. (3) The land use degree is the main factor affecting ecosystem health, with interactions between the different factors. The effects of these factors on ecosystem health are enhanced or nonlinear; (4) The effect of the proportion of construction land on ecosystem health increases over time. The layout used in urban land use planning significantly affects ecosystem health.

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Comparative analysis of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Yangtze river delta urban agglomeration, Guangdong, Hong Hong and Macau Bay area based on gravity model

10.47472/nxmq2189 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Nan Huihui ◽

◽

Lu Qing ◽

Zhao Qian ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Gravity Model ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Bay Area ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and the Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau Greater Bay Area are China's three major urban agglomerations, including China's political, economic, financial and technological centers, which are important engines of the Chinese economy. The purpose of this study is to compare these three urban agglomerations from the economy, government management and spatial interactions. The major methodology of the study is gravity model. Since there are no clear official regulations for the scope of the three major urban agglomerations, we should define the scope and core areas at first, making them at a comparable level. First of all, the economy of the three major urban agglomerations in the wide area range are similar, while the core area of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is the weakest in per capita GDP. In the perspective of government management, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is policy-oriented and pays more attention to regional balanced development. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration mainly focus on economic development. Under the policy of reform and opening up, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau Bay Area is seeking more regional cooperation with Hong Kong and Macau. In terms of spatial interactions, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration presents a dual-core structure between Beijing and Tianjin. The other urban nodes in Hebei Province are not obvious, and the regional connections are weak, leading to unbalanced development. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration presents the characteristics of a networked structure, and the cities in the entire region are closely connected and have a tendency to be integrated both in economy and transportation. The Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Greater Bay Area has formed a strong core composed of cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau and Dongguan, which are closely linked with each other, but weakly connected with external region.

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Temporal-Spatial Structure and Influencing Factors of Urban Energy Efficiency in China’s Agglomeration Areas

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su131910961 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 10961

Author(s):

Luping Zhang ◽

Yingying Zhu ◽

Liwei Fan

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Influencing Factors ◽

Network Structure ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Spatial Association ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Spatial Network ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Urban Energy

Energy efficiency has proved to be effective in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and is significant to carbon neutrality targets. Urban agglomeration is the major engine of urbanization supporting economic growth. To optimizing the spatial exchange structure to improve regional energy efficiency by integrating the total factor energy efficiency model and social network analysis, this study constructs the spatial network of energy efficiency among cities within five major urban agglomerations in China for the period 2011–2018 and investigates their spatial association characteristics. The influencing factors of each spatial network structure are also explored by the quadratic assignment procedure method. The findings show that the spatial association of energy efficiency within each urban agglomeration presents a typical network structure, but with considerable disparity among urban agglomerations. Most cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are closely connected with each other, while the surrounding cities in the areas of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Chengyu and the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River highly depend on their corresponding central cities. The spatial adjacency and GDP per capita determine the urban spatial relationship of the energy efficiency within urban agglomerations. In addition, the spatial correlation of urban energy efficiency in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Chengyu and Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River areas is also affected by the differences in energy consumption, capital stock, number of labor force and pollutant emission. Some suggestions for improving urban energy efficiency are discussed.

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Spatio-Temporal Coupling Characteristics and the Driving Mechanism of Population-Land-Industry Urbanization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040400 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 400

Author(s):

Liejia Huang ◽

Peng Yang ◽

Boqing Zhang ◽

Weiyan Hu

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Spatial Correlation ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Driving Mechanism ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Central Cities ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Development Level ◽

Coordination Degree

The purpose of this paper is to probe into the coupled coordination of urbanization in population, land, and industry to improve urbanization quality. A coupled coordination degree model, spatial analysis method and spatial metering model are employed. The study area is 110 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The study shows that: (1) the coupling degree of the population-land-industry urbanization grew very slowly between 2006 and 2016. On the whole, the three-dimensional urbanization is in a running-in period, and land-based urbanization dominates, while population-based urbanization and industry-based urbanization are relatively lagging behind. (2) The three major urban agglomerations, the Chengdu-Chongqing, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River Delta, are parallel to the whole area in terms of the coupling degree of the three dimensional urbanization with a well-ordered structure, especially in the central cities of the three major urban agglomerations. (3) There is significant spatial correlation in the coupling degree and coordination degree of the three-dimensional urbanization. The high value of coupling degree and coordination degree are clustered continuously in developed cities, provincial capitals, and central cities of the downstream reaches of the Yangtze River. (4) The coordinated degree has significant positive spatial autocorrelation, showing obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics: H-H agglomeration areas are concentrated in the downstream developed areas such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. L-L agglomeration areas are mainly concentrated in upstream undeveloped areas, but the number of their cities shows a decreasing trend. (5) The coordination degree of the three-dimensional urbanization is the result of the comprehensive effect of economic development level, the government’s decision-making behavior, and urban location. Among them, the economic development level, urbanization investment, traffic condition, and urban geographical location play a decisive role. This paper contributes to the existing literatures by exploring urbanization quality, spatial correlation and influencing factors from the perspectives of the three-dimensional urbanization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The conclusion might be helpful to promote the coupling and coordinated development of urbanization in population-land-industry, and ultimately to improve urbanization quality in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

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