Title：Assessment and Analysis of Regional Economic Collaborative Development within an Urban Agglomeration: Yangtze River Delta as a Case Study
Journal/Publisher：Habitat International
Year：2018
Authors：Chao Ye, Jiajia Zhu, Simeng Li, Shan Yang, Mingxing Chen
Abstract
Regional collaborative development mainly emphasizes the relationship and degree of connection between cities. Linkages among cities are more complex and diversified in the age of globalization, so that regional economic collaborative development has become even moreimportant than ever. Domestic and foreigncompetition must be dealt with to enhance the comprehensive strengths of urban agglomeration. This study takes the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) as a representative case to analyze and evaluate the economic synergistic development capacities of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA). Location quotients and industrial structure similarity coefficients show that cities with high levels of economic development provide advantages for secondary and tertiary industries, while cities with relatively low economic development levels provide clearer advantages for primary industries. Regarding the movement of the economic barycenter from 2001 to 2016, the overall directional trend was towards the northwest cities. The strength of economic linkages between cities is closely related to distance, population, and levels of economic development. The degree of economic development directly affects the capacity ofcollaborative development among cities, which then influences the extent of regional collaborative development.
Keywords: Regional collaborative development, Urbanization, Industry, Urban agglomeration, Yangtze River Delta, China
