Abstract:

Urbanization quality not only concerns the development of cities, but also the development of rural areas; not only economic development, land resources development, and population growth, but also equality, efficiency of development, and sustainability. Urbanization quality reflects the overall urban development levels of urban areas. This study constructed the appraisal index system of urbanization quality based on five sets of indicators, including economic development, quality of living, sustainable development, integrated urban-rural development, and social development. Using the method of entropy analysis, urbanization quality of 18 cities in Henan Province from 2003 to 2012 was measured, and the driving factors of its spatial evolution was analyzed. Main conclusions of this study include: (1) Urbanization quality in Henan Province showed an overall upward trend but it varied in different time periods for some cities. (2) Spatial pattern of the urbanization quality largely remained unchanged since 2003. High urbanization quality areas experienced only moderate change in spatial pattern and these areas are mainly located in the northwest of Henan Province, including Zhengzhou. Change of spatial pattern of urbanization quality mainly occurred in areas with lower urbanization quality, in grades III, IV, and V regions. (3) The cause of disparity in the change of spatial patterns of urbanization quality in Henan Province mainly lies in the different speed of development of the five aspects of urbanization quality. Quality of living, integrated urban-rural development, and economic development progressed with similar speed, but differences in the speed of progress in sustainable development and social development were greater. Based on the assessment result we recommend that urban development in Henan Province should focus more on the quality of urbanization instead of solely on the quantity of development; new types of urban development should be pursued actively and steadily; and cities with different urbanization quality should be treated differently in urban development planning. More attention should be focused on the two relatively weak development aspects, that is, sustainability and integrated urban-rural development, in order to promote healthy urban development in the province. In future studies, we will add city management to the appraisal index system of urbanization quality. The unit of analysis will be disaggregated to the county level for a more clear understanding of urbanization quality.

Key words: urbanization quality, spatial pattern, evolution analysis, Henan Province