PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2020, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (9): 1447-1459.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2020.09.003

• Articls • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution of the constraint strength of “administrative regional economy” from the perspective of regional economic integration: A case study of the Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang region, China

FENG Rundong1,2(), WANG Kaiyong1,*()   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Analysis and Simulation, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2020-02-03 Revised:2020-05-11 Online:2020-09-28 Published:2020-11-28
  • Contact: WANG Kaiyong E-mail:fengrd.18s@igsnrr.ac.cn;wangky@igsnrr.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(41871151)

Abstract:

As an economic phenomenon characterized by the interaction of self-governance of development and regional competition under the framework of administrative divisions, "administrative regional economy" (ARE) has a profound impact on regional coordinated development. With the perspective of regional economic integration, this study constructed an ARE measurement model (AREM) based on ARE function and improved potential model, and took the Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang region as an example to quantitatively describe the spatiotemporal evolution of the constraint strength of ARE from 2005 to 2018. The results show that: 1) In 2005-2018, ARE of the study area experienced three stages of development—overall rise-rapid decline-fluctuation, and the rigid constraint of administrative divisions on economic integration generally declined, with a clear regional integration trend. 2) 2009 was the inflection point (peak) of the ARE change, and the various stages of the ARE change were strongly coupled with policy and administrative division adjustments, indicating that AREM has reasonable applicability. 3) The transition of ARE type steadily took place during 2005-2018: high-intensity and 60% of medium-intensity cities transformed into low-intensity cities, and the proportion of low-intensity cities increased from 51.7% to 91.4%. This shows that ARE has decreased significantly and the level of regional integration has increased. 4) The spatial pattern of ARE in the study area experienced the process of central polarization-central to peripherial decline-peripheral collapse, and effective measures were taken in terms of regional coordinated development with remarkable results, which promoted the displacement of ARE's center of gravity to the south (3° west) by 10.08 km. In the future, it is necessary to optimize the regional system of the Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang region by reforming the administrative structure and timely promoting the adjustment of administrative divisions, weakening the restriction of administrative divisions, and building an integrated development model.

Key words: administrative regional economy, quantitative measurement model, regional economic integration, spatiotemporal evolution, Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang region