Abstract
Unbalanced regional development is widespread, and the imbalance of regional development in developing countries with rapid urbanization is increasingly apparent. This threatens the sustainable development of the region. Promoting the coordinated development of the region has become a hot spot of scientific research and a major practical need. Taking 99 counties of Jiangsu Province China, a typical coastal plain region, as the basic research unit, this paper explores the unbalanced development characteristics of the regional urban spatial form using three indicators: urban spatial expansion size, development intensity, and distribution aggregation degree. Then, their driving mechanisms were evaluated using spatial autocorrelation analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and geographically weighted regression. Our results found that the areas with larger urban spatial expansion size and development intensity were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu, where there was a positive spatial correlation between them. We found no agglomeration phenomenon in urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. From the perspective of driving factors: economics was the main driving factor of urban spatial expansion size; urbanization level and urbanization quality were the main driving factors of urban spatial development intensity. Natural landform and urbanization level are the main driving factors of urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. Finally, we discussed the optimization strategy of regional coordinated development. The quality of urbanization development and regional integration should be promoted in Southern Jiangsu. The level of urbanization development should be improved relying on rapid transportation to develop along the axis in central Jiangsu. The economic size should be increased, focusing on the expansion of the urban agglomeration in northern Jiangsu. This study will enrich the perspective of research on the characteristics and mechanisms of regional urban spatial imbalance, and helps to optimize and regulate the imbalance of regional urban development from multiple perspectives.
Highlights
The pace of global urbanization has increased since the industrial revolution
We aim to explore the unbalanced development characteristics of regional urban spatial forms
Considering the spatial expansion size and density, we found that the development of urban clusters had reached a relatively mature stage in southern Jiangsu where the central cities being were linked with the surrounding towns
Summary
The pace of global urbanization has increased since the industrial revolution. The global average urbanization rate reached 55% in 2018 and is associated with widespread regional imbalance. Developed countries with high urbanization rates generally have regional imbalances. The imbalance of regional development will aggravate the gap between the rich and the poor in the region, which may bring a series of problem, such as, the difficulties in equilibrium of infrastructure construction, the imbalance of regional social public services, the loss of population in backward areas, and so on. In other words, it will threaten the sustainable development of the region [1]
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