Spatial evolution track of economic and industrial gravity center based on GIS: A case study of Fujian Province, 1991–2008

Abstract

Applied in the fields of economy, industry and population, the gravity center model has significance in practice, which is helpful to reveal the evolution rule of its spatial development. This paper analyzes the relations between the economic gravity center and every industrial gravity center, by calculating their spatial evolution track in Fujian Province from 1991 to 2008 and using the gravity center model as the researching method and geographic information systems (GIS) as the technical platform. The results show that there is a certain rule in the spatial moving direction and the distance between the economic gravity center and every industrial gravity center in Fujian Province. The movement distance was in the following sequence, i.e. the movement distance of the second industrial gravity center was bigger than that of the economic gravity center, which was bigger than that of the tertiary industrial gravity center, which was bigger than that of the primary industrial gravity center. Overall, it shows the trend that the gravity center of the economy and every industry is moving from the northwest to the southeast; as the development of the three major industries was imbalance, the primary industry gravity center affects little on economic gravity center, while the secondary and tertiary industries were the main factors affecting the spatial evolution track of the economic gravity center.