Over the past decade, many problems that surfaced in the process of urbanization can be attributed to uncoordinated development. Based on a human-environment relationship perspective, this article analyzes coordinated development of the new urbanization process using indicators concerning the coordination of urban and rural , urban and industrial, intra-regional, and resources/environment and urban developments. Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as a case, this study examines the convergence and conditional convergence of the coordination using the spatial Durbin panel data model empirically. The result shows that factors affecting the coordinated development of the new urbanization process vary between the eastern, central, and western areas of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. To facilitate the coordinated development of the new urbanization process, the eastern areas should promote the coordination between urbanization and resources/environment, and promote the coordinated development among regions; the central areas should change the demolition-construction urban development model and focus on the development of services and increase cooperation between cities; the western areas should continue the market opening-up process, reduce government intervention in the market and competition with regard to urban development, and develop services and promote local economic growth. Policies limiting urban population growth has had no significant effect on the coordinated development of the new urbanization process, but relaxing the household registration restrictions will increase migration to urban areas, which will have positive effects on the coordinated development of the new urbanization process with regard to the development of tertiary industry, integration of industrial and urban development, and coordination of urban and rural development.

Based on the data from China's Fifth and Sixth Census, this article analyzes the urban functional divisions and its change in the cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2000 to 2010 with respect to the specialized sectors, scale, and degree of intensification. The results show that, (1) the basic urban functions of YREB include manufacturing, construction, commerce, real estate, scientific research and other services. (2) Yangtze River Delta Area prominently featured by city agglomeration and metropolitan industrialization, is the industrial center of YREB; And there are great achievements in industrial gradient transfer but lack of national level regulatory guidance mechanism by districts or levels, thus causing great pressure in eco-environmental protection. (3) Construction and real estate industrial functions are transferring from the cities in the lower-reach of the Yangtze River Basin to the cities in the middle- and upper-reaches, and propelling rapid and strong development of producer and consumer services including commerce, scientific research, finance, social and other services. However, there are problems such as serious urban industrial isomorphism and insufficient agglomeration of central cities. (4) It is difficult for the function declining of transportation and communication industries to support the smooth implementation of the National Strategy of YREB. Based on the above discussed problems, the innovative management mechanism is proposed to foster an integrated system of urban functional divisions for river basin development; the river industrial standards for access are recommended to ensure the coordinated development of green city functional system; the new national level districts and urban agglomerations are suggested to serve as the complementary approach to make the urban functional system more comprehensive, and the multi-modal transport corridor of YRBE could be used to enable the optimization of resource allocation along the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is a significant supporting area for transforming the spatial pattern of regional development in China from the T-shaped structure to a new H-shaped structure. The hierarchical structure of the urban system of the Yangtze River Economic Belt presents a pyramid pattern featured by unbalanced division in function of the upper-, middle-, and lower reaches, unbalanced spatial structure of development, and deep pressures on the resources and environment. At present, problems of urban agglomeration development along the Yangtze River Economic Belt include the mismatch of space delimitation with development standard and strong government intervention. The overall development level is weaker than the coastal urban agglomerations, urban agglomeration development decreases from the downstream areas to the upstream areas, ecological and resources security situation is grim, cities within the agglomerations compete rather than cooperate, and there is a lack of overall coordination mechanism. Thus, this study recommends to use the river basin and transport system integration as a main theme, to promote integration and market development of urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and build a new "1+2+3" staged or differented development pattern for urban agglomerations along the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Supported by different driving forces, the development should emphasize advantages and priorities of urban agglomerations at all levels according to the local conditions. The strategic development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the future can take the following measures: set up a development committee for urban agglomeration integration of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and establish an overall coordination mechanism for river basin integration; follow principles of urban agglomeration development and avoid irrational enlargement of urban agglomerations that is separated from the local reality; build a urban system with linkages between urban agglomerations as the strategic base; establish public financing and public fiscal reserves mechanism for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; strengthen cooperation for ecological environment protection and build eco-friendly urban agglomerations; speed up the innovation-driven development and build an innovative urban agglomeration; and prioritize the construction of a series of major projects and national-level new districts to support the development of urban agglomerations along the Yangtze River Economic Belt.