Abstract
This study is about the urban economic service function characteristics and the regional economic contact from the perspectives of region and industries. This paper analyzes the location quotient (LQ), urban external function capability (UEFC), and the characteristics and distribution of urban economic flow intensity (UEFI) of cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of Guangdong Province, China. Results show: (1) the proportion of the UEFI of Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the PRD region decreased while the one of Foshan and Dongguan increased from 2005 to 2013; (2) the UEFI of Foshan gained the largest increase (532%) and Zhuhai showed the smallest increase (76%) from 2005 to 2013; (3) LQs of manufacturing in all cities were greater than one, indicating the overall external service capability of this sector was strong in the PRD region; (4) the numbers of cities whose LQs of tertiary sectors were greater than one reduced from 2005 to 2013, reflecting the urban external service capabilities of the tertiary sectors tended to be concentrated to fewer cities.
Highlights
Cities and regions have gained increasing attention in the world [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
This study aims to choose the urban agglomerations in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region as a case study to investigate the urban economic flow intensity characteristics and structure by using the UEFI model
A megalopolis can be defined as a large metropolitan area that includes several cities that can provide the outside world with comprehensive external service functions, which could have more than one growth poles and radiation sources in the area to drive its social and economic development
Summary
Cities and regions have gained increasing attention in the world [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Urban development cannot separate itself from regional natural and socio-economic conditions to develop in isolation. Core city and its surrounding cities in a region should cooperate with each other by reasonable division of labor to enhance regional comprehensive competitiveness in a metropolitan area. Stronger development driving force of major cities can promote regional integration at a higher level. The link between the evolution of regional economy and the patterns of geographical competition and cooperation has been examined in previous study [21,22,23,24,25] Agglomeration can give rise to powerful and measurable economic synergies [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20].
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