The Competitiveness of Regional Urban System in Hubei Province of China

Abstract

Urban competitiveness is an indispensable topic for urban management. The purpose of this work was to study the status quo of urban system competitiveness in any region and explore the internal factors that affect urban competitiveness. In this study, 30 indicators were selected from six dimensions: population, economic strength, infrastructure, technology and culture, open exchange, and quality of life, and a two-level evaluation index system was constructed. The entropy weight method was used to calculate the weight, and 12 prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province were taken as the evaluation object. This study found that in Hubei province, (1) science, technology, and culture are the first driving forces of urban competitiveness; (2) the impact of the quality of life on urban competitiveness is deepening and obvious, especially the impact of residents’ consumption; and (3) Wuhan, the provincial capital city, is far ahead in terms of its competition and its position is unshakable, followed by Yichang and Xiangyang. Overall, the competitiveness gap between cities in the region is gradually narrowing.