Research On The Development Of Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration Economic Space

With the rapid development of world-wide urbanization, the geographical space of cities and its influences have changed a lot since the 1950s'. In many developed areas, big cities have expanded into its surrounding areas and gradually developed into large-scale metropolises. The famous French geographer Jean Gottmann had forecasted in 1957 that the spatial assembly of big city was the development tendency of regional organization system for the cities which were ready for urbanization and it would be one of the main symbols of advanced human civilization in the 20th and 21st century. With the industrialization and the urbanization quickly developing, new cities emerge without stop and city spaces expand continuously. Isolated cities gradually formed networks and the phenomena of urban agglomerations and of industry clusters became more outstanding. Especially in the process of global economic integration, the urban agglomerations play more and more important roles in the global competition. And the metropolises which are formed around New York, London, Paris and Tokyo respectively are becoming the most important members in the global competitions.In the rapidly-developing industrialization and urbanization of our country, urban agglomerations have appeared as well. And urban agglomerations are especially outstanding in the Yangtze River Delta region, Pearl River Delta region, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Chengdu-Chongqing region. In reality, this is formed by the frequent interactions among areas in forms of people, of things, of information, of funds, of technologies in a long time and is the result of the closely linked regional industrial relations and of the spatial connections. The urban agglomerations are important to lead and enhance our regional economic development and of great help for our country to participate better in the global economic competition. At the 16th and 17th national congress of Communist Party of China, it is clearly pointed out that large and medium-sized cities and small towns should be developed harmoniously and that, based on the present metropolises, new urban agglomerations should be built to bring out new economic growth point. According to the fifth five-year plan, urban agglomeration should be the main form of our country's urbanization and an efficient, coordinated and sustainable spatial structure of urbanization should be constructed.Compared with the urban agglomerations formed around New York, London, Paris and Tokyo and thoses around the Yangtze River Delta region, Pearl River Delta region, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the urban agglomeration around Chengdu-Chongqing is lagging far behind. Then how to perform better aggregation and radiation functions of cities in Chengdu-Chongqing areas, how to deepen the assignment and the cooperation relationships among cities, and how to drive and promote the economy development of Chinese Western area and even that of the whole country are all the important tasks that we face now. And this is also the reason why the author chooses to study about the economic spatial development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.In this dissertation, the author, employing theories of regional economics, industrial economics and urban economics, uses research methods like spatial analysis, statistical analysis and so on to empirically study the economic spatial development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration and put forward a series of valuable measures which are important to develop the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. This is good to understand the characteristics and law of economic spatial development of urban agglomeration, to optimize the economic spatial structure of urban agglomeration and to develop the economy of urban agglomerations in our country.This dissertation composed of seven parts consists of the introduction and the body. Chapter One is the introduction part. In this part, the author discusses the motivation of selecting this topic, the significance of this study, the previous studies about this topic, the study perspective and the outline, the new points and the limitations of this study one by one. Chapter Two is mainly about the fundamental theories about the economic spatial development of the urban agglomeration, such as the definition of urban agglomeration, the theories of urban agglomeration economic spatial relationships and etc. Based on the discussion, Chapter Three analyzes the formation mechanism of urban agglomeration economic space. This part theoretically discusses the formation mechanism of urban agglomeration economic space from the perspectives of drives mechanisms of industry aggregation effects, of industry radiation effect and of urbanization and industrialization and etc. The present situation and the problems of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration economic space are discussed in Chapter Four. According to the fundamental theories of urban agglomeration economic spatial development, the author studies the present situation and the problems of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration economic space. Chapter Five focuses on the formation mechanism of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration economic space. And the chances and barriers in the development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration economic space become the core of Chapter Six. Then how to make good use of these valuable chances and overcome the difficulties are very important. Then in the final chapter(Chapter Seven), the author put forward measures and ideas to accelerate the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration economic space.On the basis of studying about urban agglomeration related theories, this dissertation precisely and clearly defined the meanings, the characteristics, the supporting conditions and the landscape token of the economic space of urban agglomeration. From the perspective of industry aggregation and radiation, the author employed theories from new economic geography and used mathematical models to study the evolution mechanism and process of urban agglomeration economic spatial development and constructed an analysis framework of urban agglomeration economic space which shows the relationship among the scale structure, the function structure, the spatial structure and the spatial interaction of urban agglomeration.According to this study, the author put forward some viewpoints about the economic spatial development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.1. Lacking of big cities especially metropolises makes the hierarchy of cities irrational, the main functions of cities disorganized and the spatial structure of cities fallacious. Therefore the regional comprehensive service functions of metropolises are not well developed in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.2. The economic spatial structure of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is in form of English letter H.3. The aggregation and radiation of industries, the development of industrialization and urbanization, the networking of infrastructure construction and macroeconomic function of governments are all the working mechanisms that help to form the economic space in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.4. The economic spatial development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration faces many barriers, such as the national-level programming and poor transport and communication facilities and etc.5. A series of new measures which can promote the economic spatial development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration are put forward. For example, different regions should be planned overally and the regional cooperation should be strengthened. Great attention should be paid in building Chengdu-Dengyang-Mianyang-Leshan, Chongqing and Southern Sichuan urban agglomerations. The middle and big cities which are qualified should be developed into megalopolis to promote the economic spatial development of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.