Abstract
As an important carrier of expanded urban spatial growth, new towns have been a “policy tool” for spatial production in the new era and have received long-term and constant attention from circles such as geography, planning, and economics. National new districts constitute a new regional space for China to implement the national strategy and promote the transformation of urban development mode. They are mutually reinforcing with their mother cities and hinterland provinces. Based on the geodetector method, this paper reveals the key factors driving the development of national new districts by mother cities and hinterland provinces and their interaction effects, which provides a basis for municipal and provincial governments to accurately formulate policies to promote the development of new towns by classification. The study shows that, firstly, there are five types of driving factors, that is, all-round driving factors, scale-increasing factors, expansion and quality-improving factors, expertise driving factors, and non-driving factors. The strength and dimension of the driving factors are characterized by prominent heterogeneity; R&D personnel, export and import trade are the key factors to expand the increment, optimize the inventory, and improve the quality; the overall development driving forces are in the order of innovation > opening > industry > investment > population. Secondly, the pairwise interaction between different factors exhibits two-factor enhancement, and the population shows a nonlinear increase in the driving force of investment, openness, and innovation on a provincial scale. Thirdly, according to the driving force of the factors and the interaction between them, suggestions are put forward based on the development stage and key demands for city and provincial governments to make policies for the development of national new districts, to support the establishment of scientific competition and cooperation between new towns and mother cities or regions, and to build a long-term collaborative development mechanism.
Highlights
Based on the “quasi” full sample data of 18 national new districts, this paper quantitatively depicts the heterogeneity of the development of national new districts and the effectiveness of their hinterland driving forces by the geodetector method, and measures the interaction effect of different policies in the case of multiple measures, with an attempt to reveal the mechanism of hinterland provinces driving the development of national new districts, so as to provide reference for the central, provincial and city governments to design policies related to the development and planning of new towns
Based on 18 national new districts and their hinterland provinces and cities as samples, this paper constructs an analysis framework of development heterogeneity and hinterland driving factors for national new districts including 15 indicators on the two scales of city and province and in the three dimensions of inventory, increment and quality, finding the leading factors and their interaction effects that affect the development capacity level, speed, and quality of national new districts, revealing the driving mechanism of hinterland provinces and cities to promote the sound, rapid and high-quality national new district development, and putting forward the policy suggestions for the provincial and city governments according to the development stage of the national new districts
Due to the mutual support between the new town and the mother city, and a two-way interaction between the new town and the hinterland, for the city and provincial governments, the goal is to drive the development of cities and regions depending on the new towns, by means of specific policies to catalyze and activate the new towns
Summary
New town construction and old city renewal are two trends of urban spatial development, especially for countries in the rapid development stage of urbanization and industrialization, where it is a common spatial phenomenon to develop and construct new towns on the edge or periphery of the old city. Based on the concept of sustainable composite development of new towns, and the practical experience in planning and construction of developed countries such as Britain and the United States, building new towns on the edge or periphery of the old city has gradually become a strategic choice for urban development in many countries or regions. It is obvious that new towns have been an important carrier of urban spatial expansion and economic development in China, driving the rapid change of urban visions and spatial structure, and greatly promoting the development of national economy.
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