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Arid Land Geography ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 636-648.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.224

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evolution of new urbanization of provincial capitals in western China

ZOU Yafeng1,2(),ZHANG Qian2(),RAO Yufei1,DEND Min3,WANG Qi4   

  1. 1. College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350158, Fujian, China
    2. College of Public Administration, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, Inner Mongolia, China
    3. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    4. Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • Received:2022-05-16 Revised:2022-08-15 Online:2023-04-25 Published:2023-04-28

Abstract:

New urbanization includes the basic characteristics of urban-rural coordination, urban-rural integration, industrial interaction, conservation and intensiveness, ecological livability, and harmonious development. It is mainly manifested in terms of population, economy, land, society, and ecology. This study constructed a comprehensive evaluation index system from five factors, i.e., population urbanization, economic urbanization, land urbanization, social urbanization, and ecological civilization, to reveal the quality of new urbanization in provincial capitals of western China and determine its development trend. For this, the comprehensive scores of new urbanization of provincial capitals in western China and the scores of each factor layer in each city from 2005 to 2019 were calculated by means of entropy and weighted summation method. The Q-type cluster analysis method and partial correlation analysis method were used to calculate the comprehensive level, single item level, and single item level correlation of new urbanization in provincial capitals of western China. The analyses revealed the following results: (1) New urbanization in different cities has different and unstable development levels, and the construction of new urbanization is still in the exploratory stage. The development imbalance within and among the three regions is prominent; the cities’ comprehensive scores of new urbanization in the northwest region are far behind the southwest region and the middle reaches of the Yellow River. (2) Provincial capitals of western China have a weak attraction for talents. The economic level and social development show great differences, indicating that the quality of life of the residents needs to be improved. (3) Economy and ecology have achieved coordinated development; however, other single urbanization factors exhibit imbalances. Cities should use land more economically and intensively since land urbanization is faster than population urbanization. Based on the above conclusions, related recommendations are also presented. The findings of this study can contribute to the development of new urbanization in western China.

Key words: new urbanization, entropy method, quality evaluation, provincial capitals of western China