Spatial Cognition Of The Yangtze River Mid-reaches Megaregion

Under the background of the new normal of economy and the new types of urbanization,the megaregion has become an important space carrier for China to participate in the world economic competition.Cultivating more megaregions has become an important strategy to enhance the regional comprehensive competitiveness.The Yangtze River Mid-Reaches Megaregion(YRMM)as the "new growth point of China" was first replyed by the State Council of China in nine national megaregions.But there is always a dispute between the "triangle" and "four corners" in the spatial scope of this region.Socioeconomic development is the result of the interaction of all sectors of society.Acquiring public’s spatial scope of the YRMM is of great significance to promote the coordinated development of the YRMM and to promote the strategy of "Yangtze River Economic Belt".This paper explores the spatial scope of the YRMM from a public perspective.We compared the differences and causes of cognitive maps among college students in three different regions on the Yangtze River Economic Belt.First,we obtained the hand-drawn map of college students in eight cities within the YRMM,the Yangtze River Delta Megaregion(YRDM)and the Cheng-yu Megaregion(CYM)through questionnaires.And we mapped the hand-drawn sketches to the GIS through Qualitative GIS methods.Secondly,we used Arcgis to create students’ integration maps,density maps,and cognition proportion distribution maps of YRMM to analyze the differences in college students’ cognition maps.Thirdly,we used the scope of "Development Plan of the Yangtze River Mid-Reaches Megaregion" as the standard.The area distortion index(ADI)and center distortion index(CDI)are introduced to measure the distortion and the reasons of college students’ cognitive maps.Finally,we applied SPSS to analyze the determinants of cognitive distortion.The relationship between students’ personal attributes and the cognitive distortions was found by regression analysis.The major findings are collected as follows.(1)The cognitive maps of college students on the Yangtze River Economic Belt have a circle structure with a significant northward distortion trend.The college students of the three megaregions have three different cognitive maps.The cognitive maps have obvious tendency to shift toward the megaregions where their school is located.(2)The core area of the cognitive maps is characterized by a "Wuhan-centered" pattern.College students from the YRMM believe that "Wuhan Urban Circle + Jingzhou" is the core area of YRMM.The high-density area of students’ cognitive maps from the YRDM is concentrated in Xinyang-Huanggang-Jiujiang.The CYM forms three concentrated areas of Wuhan-Yichang,Wuhan-Chongqing and Wuhan-Chengdu.(3)Compared with the plan,most students’ cognitive maps are accurate.But there are still some differences.Compared with other megaregions,the average areal cognitive accuracy of undergraduates from the YRMM is higher,and students from the YRDM have higher regional cognition consistency.(4)The center points of the cognitive map of college students are closely distributed along the Yangtze River.The center points of the sample from the YRMM are concentrated within the Wuhan Urban Circle,with a northward(43.2%)distortion trend.There are two agglomeration points of the sample from the YRDM such as the Wuhan Urban Circle and Jiangsu Province.The center points of the sample from CYM are distributed in stripes with a distinct westward(64.2%)distortion trend.(5)College students’ "living time","the city where the school is located" and "the professional type" have a significant impact on the cognitive distortion.A longer residence time in the YRMM is able to improve cognitive rate.Undergraduates majoring in geography have a higher cognitive accuracy and majoring in financial have a higher cognitive consistency.The closer the school is to YRMM,the higher the cognitive accuracy is.