Research On Competition And Cooperation Of The Yangtze River Delta Port Cluster Based On Ecological Theory

The Yangtze River Delta port cluster is the largest port cluster of China which holds the most intensive ports and the maximal number of handling capacity.It undertakes the mission of transportation of more than 30% of domestic and foreign waterway cargo nationwide,and not only supports the construction of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Economic Belt,but also a vital bridge as well as a hub connecting the “Belt and Road”.In that sense,the Yangtze River Delta port cluster playes a decisive role in China’s economic and port shipping development.In the future,China is going to upgrade the Yangtze River Delta port cluster to a world-class port cluster.Whether the Yangtze River Delta port cluster centered with Shanghai port can establish its’ dominant position of the hub port cluster in Northeast Asia will no longer depend on the development level of any single port but the comprehensive competitiveness of the whole port cluster.Meanwhile,the continuous advancement of the Yangtze River Delta’s integrated national strategy has also led the development of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster into a critical period.The actual status of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster still has a large gap with the goal of integrated development.Mechanism bottlenecks and administrative barriers which are hard to break still exist,and resources integration of the port cluster needs to be further strengthend.Some port development planning is oriented to maximize local interests.Problems like redundant construction,resource waste,repeated function and homogeneous competition have not been completely resolved,which have reduced the resource utilization and service efficiency of the port cluster.Taking the Yangtze River Delta port group as the research object,on the basis of field surveys and literature review,the characteristics of the port cluster and the ecological community were analyzed and compared.Based on the community ecology theory and diversity theory,the concepts of port niche and port cargo diversity were put forward,and an index system to measure the niche width and comprehensive niche was established,combining with cargo diversity characteristics of each port,ports in the Yangtze River Delta port cluster was classified into 4 levels: dominant ports,subdominant ports,accessory ports and occasional ports.Finally,according to the theory of population ecology,a Lokta-Volterra model based on the throughput growth of multiple ports was established,and the competition-cooperation coefficients of the ports in the Yangtze River Delta port group were calculated,and the competitioncooperation relations between different port levels were summarized.And it is proposed that in the process of port cluster integration,ports should focus on and adjust the competition relationship between ports at the interval level and the predation relationship between high-level ports and low-level ports.And Corresponding suggestions were put forward.By referring to the relevant theories and methods of ecology,the structural division of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster and the analysis of its internal competition and cooperation relationship were realized,which not only enriched the method of the research on the internal cooperation and cooperation relationship among a port cluster,but also provided references for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster.