Abstract: Regional Self-development Capacity(RSC) refers to the regional competitive power which is comprehensively supported by sustainable factors from many aspects. Promoting the development of the Silk Road Economic Zone is of great significance for the whole world Chinese. For the sake of developing the radiation and driving effect of the Silk Road Economic,study on the status,constraints and spatio-temporal evolution of RSC in this area is very important and meaningful. In this paper,RSC is modeled by the combination of industrial capacity(IC),market capacity(MC),spatial capacity(SC) and soft power(SP). Based on the Statistical Yearbooks of the State and the relevant provinces(such as China Statistical Yearbook for regional economy,China City Statistical Yearbook and some Local statistical yearbook),RSCs of 31 prefecture-level cities in the city group of Silk eastern were firstly modeled and evaluated in 1990,1995,2000,2005 and 2013. The spatial patterns and temporal characteristics of RSCs were then presented and analyzed with the support of GIS tools. Finally the RCS's structural features,dynamic changes and driving forces were discussed deeply. The results show as follows:(1) the RSC of all the cities in eastern Silk Road was generally low and uneven;(2) the MC was a constraint factor for RSC in the city group,but over the past 23 years,MC had increased substantially and became the most valuable factor stimulating the increase of the RSCs;though SC and SP had also been greatly improved since 1990,their contributions to RSCs still became smaller;(3) Urumqi,Lanzhou and Xi'an belonged to high-level but uncoordinated development,Hotan,Wuwei and Zhangye City belonged to low-level but coordinated development;(4) fiscal revenue and expenditure contradiction,aging problem were the main issues in the capital city Xi'an,Lanzhou and Urumqi;in the southern region of Xinjiang,Gansu Gannan Prefecture and other regions,the main restricting factor of RSC was relevant to the urbanization,very lower financial self-sufficiency and economic conditions. Compared with the previous research of Silk Road economic development,this paper quantitatively but not qualitatively studied Regional Self-development Capacity with a certain indicators based on geographic space. These innovative can provide more detail and specific data support for the development of the city group of eastern Silk Road,and has great theoretical and practical value.

Key words: regional self-development capacity, distribution pattern, dynamic change, driving mechanism, Silk Road