Spatial variation of the relationship between transport accessibility and the level of economic development in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

Abstract

As an important component of China' transportation systems, for a long time, the insufficient performance of transport in Qinghai- Tibet Plateau (QTP) was a bottleneck restricting the economic growth and social development in this area. Nevertheless, the implementation of the western development strategy has accelerated the preliminary construction of comprehensive transport network since 2000. Due to the large area and significant geographical heterogeneity, there is a growing need to understand the relationship between transportation and economic development based on the perspective of spatial difference. By using GIS-based raster analysis and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model, we investigated the spatial-temporal distribution of highway, railway and airport accessibility, respectively, and estimated the correlation and heterogeneity between transport accessibility and the level of economic development. Results revealed that: (1) Transport accessibility in the QTP improved by 53.38% in the past 15 years, which is specifically embodied in the improvement of both highway and railway. (2) Accessibility presented prominent differentiation in the space, increasing from west to east and reducing with the rise of elevation, specifically, the best accessibility area of the highway is below 4000m above sea level, while the area with an altitude of over 4000 m has the lowest aviation time cost. (3) In general, the long weighted average time cost to critical transport facilities posed significantly negative effect on county economic growth in QTP, more positively, the adverse effect gradually weakened over time. (4) Obvious heterogeneity exists at the influence of different transport accessibility factors on the level of economic development, reflecting both in the horizontal space and altitudinal belt. Therefore, region-specific policies should be addressed for the sustainable development of transport facilities as well as economy in the west mountain areas.