| At the sixth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Commission in 2020,General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the importance of promoting the high-quality development of central cities and urban agglomerations along the Yellow River area.The seven major urban agglomerations along the Yellow River area,Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration,Central Plains urban agglomeration,Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration,Jinzhong urban agglomeration,Hohhot-Baotou-Erdos-Yulin urban agglomeration,Ningxia urban agglomeration along the Yellow River and Lanxi urban agglomeration,seized important historical opportunities to implement the innovation-driven strategy and build a high-quality growth pole in the basin.However,their have shortcomings in the development status.The economic development of the Yellow River Basin is limited by imbalanced economic and innovation capabilities.Promoting the synergy between regional economy and innovation capacity is a crucial factor in achieving high-quality economic development in the Yellow River Basin.In view of this,this paper evaluates the innovation capability and economic quality development level and analyzes their synergy and characteristics of the seven major urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin.The study consists of six primary sections,which are as follows: Chapter 1introductory section introduces the research background,current research status and other aspects.Chapter 2 presents the theoretical foundation and model construction.Chapter 3 presents the status of innovation capacity and high-quality economic development of the seven major city clusters.Chapter 4 examines the spatial and temporal evolution in innovation ability and level of high-quality economic development in seven urban agglomerations.Chapter 5 explores the correlation between innovation capacity and high-quality economic development in urban agglomerations within the Yellow River Basin.Chapter 6 proposes policy recommendations for coordinating innovation capacity and economic quality development in the Yellow River Basin urban agglomerations.Through the above research,the conclusions are as follows:(1)The average innovation ability and economic high-quality development index in the Yellow River region have significantly increased,indicating a positive overall development trend.Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration is the strongest leading group,while Ningxia and Lanxi urban agglomeration are at the bottom.Downstream urban agglomerations are approaching their environmental carrying capacity limits.Middle and upper urban agglomerations show low innovation and openness levels and inward-oriented development characteristics.The spatial pattern of innovation ability and high-quality economic development decreases from downstream to upstream.(2)In 2020,the Yellow River Basin’s coupling and coordination level between innovation capacity and high-quality economic development has improved to a barely coordinated level compared to 2010,with the two systems beginning to show a synergistic relationship.Most urban agglomerations have reached coordination status,except for Ningxia Yanghuang and Lanxi.The overall coupling and coordination degree follows a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the downstream-low in the middle and upper reaches."(3)Most cities within the city cluster have reached the level of barely coordinated,primary coordinated,and intermediate coordinated,while dysfunctional cities are becoming less common.Central cities along the Yellow River such as Xi’an,Qingdao,Jinan,and Zhengzhou have achieved high-quality coordination,while small and medium-sized cities such as Baiyin,Dingxi,and Zhongwei have imbalanced coordinated development.The overall spatial distribution pattern shows that the central city is the core and the downstream has higher levels than the middle and upper reaches.(4)The level of coupling and coordination of innovation capacity has a strong spatial correlation with high-quality economic development in the Yellow River urban agglomeration.The lower reaches of the Yellow River are witnessing a concentration of high-level cities with strong spatial connectivity,which has further strengthened the degree of agglomeration.(5)Innovation capacity is the key factor influencing the coordinated development of the two systems.The coupled and coordinated development of the urban agglomeration in the Yellow River basin is hindered by the lack of open development,inadequate innovation input,and unsupportive innovation environment.Improving the level of openness in the middle and upper reaches,as well as strengthening innovation input and results transformation in the lower reaches,is necessary to avoid constraining coordinated development.The policy implications are as follows:(1)Promoting the construction of technology innovation centers to form a source of driving force that leads high-quality economic development.(2)Strengthening the regional innovation network system to promote high-quality regional economic development through innovation-driven city clusters.(3)Improving the level of open innovation in the basin and building a diversified and collaborative innovation ecology for coordinated development.(4)Breaking through the barriers in downstream city clusters and strengthening the leading and driving role of the basin.(5)Establishing a coordinated mechanism and promoting high-quality coordinated development in an integrated manner. |
