The Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Urban-Rural Coordinated Development and Its Driving Forces in Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

This paper conducts an analytical study on the urban-rural coordinated development (URCD) in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), and uses data from 2000–2015 of 27 central cities to study the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of URCD and to discover the influencing factors and driving forces behind it through PCA, ESDA and spatial regression models. It reveals that URCD of the YRDUA shows an obvious club convergence phenomenon during the research duration. The regions with high-level URCD gather mainly in the central part of the urban agglomeration, while the remaining regions mostly have low-level URCD, reflecting the regional aggregation phenomenon of spatial divergence. At the same time, we split URCD into efficiency and equity: urban-rural efficient development (URED) also exhibits similar spatiotemporal evolution patterns, but the patterns of urban-rural balanced development (URBD) show some variability. Finally, by analyzing the driving forces in major years during 2000–2015, it can be concluded that: (i) In recent years, influencing factors such as government financial input and consumption no longer play the main driving role. (ii) Influencing factors such as industrialization degree, fixed asset investment and foreign investment even limit URCD in some years. The above results also show that the government should redesign at the system level to give full play to the contributing factors depending on the actual state of development in different regions and promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. The results of this study show that the idea of measuring URCD from two dimensions of efficiency and equity is practical and feasible, and the spatial econometric model can reveal the spatial distribution heterogeneity and time evolution characteristics of regional development, which can provide useful insights for urban-rural integration development of other countries and regions.

Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Characteristics and Dynamic Effects of Urban-Rural Integration Development in the Yangtze River Delta Region

“…First, for the overall time-series change characteristics, the level of the development of urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Delta region has been elevated between 2003 and 2020, which is significantly correlated with a series of policies implemented in China since 2003, with the aim to boost rural development, including the strategies of integrated urban-rural development, coordinated urban-rural development and new urbanization, which have played a crucial role in achieving the development of urban-rural integration [36]. The conclusion of this study is consistent with the findings of Daizhong Tang et al [37]. In addition, the increase in the level of the development of urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Delta between 2019 and 2020 is the smallest compared with other years, primarily due to the shock of the sudden outbreak of the domestic epidemic in China (which began in Wuhan) at the end of 2019.…”

“…Third, as revealed by the dynamic impact effect of urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Delta region, urban-rural ecological integration plays a positive role in promoting the improvement of urban-rural economic integration and urban-rural social integration [40,41], and the development of urban-rural social integration can promote the improvement of urban-rural ecological integration development. Moreover, the result of this study fills the gap of the study by Changjun Jiang et al and Daizhong Tang et al and indicates the mechanism of action between urban-rural integration subsystems [37,42], thus revealing the "high-quality development path oriented to ecological priority and green development" advocated by the Chinese government in recent years [43]. Furthermore, to develop urban-rural social integration, it is crucial to achieve universal sharing of infrastructure and public services between urban and rural areas [44], open up channels for the circulation of factors between urban and rural areas, solidify the social foundation for the development of urban-rural ecological integration, and facilitate urban-rural ecological integration toward a virtuous cycle [45].…”

Spatial-temporal evolution of population aging in the yangtze river delta urban agglomeration of China

“…Mainland of China consists of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities directly under the central government [ 22 ], including 286 cities [ 23 ]. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration includes 27 cities from three provinces, which are Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, including Shanghai, which is a municipality directly under the central government [ 24 ]. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has abundant resources and large market potential and is an important industrial and commercial center in China [ 12 ].…”

Research on the spatial differences and influencing factors of integrated urban-rural development in the Yangtze River Delta

“…Since then, many scholars have also attempted to conduct a quantitative analysis of urban and rural development issues to search for a more comprehensive and scientific evaluation index system. Tang et al (2021) built a comprehensive evaluation index system from efficiency and equity, Ma et al (2020) built an index system of urban and rural life quality from the economy, society, and environment to evaluate urban-rural differences and integration, Yang et al (2021) and Wang et al (2021) built an urban-rural integration index from the economy, society, and space. As the research is more and more mature, it is impossible to comprehensively explain integrated urban-rural development from only two or three dimensions.…”