Abstract:

Integrating urban and rural development is the strategy and mostly significant task of people-oriented urbanization. It is of importance to strengthen research on urban-rural coordinated development, to provide scientific supports for urban-rural planning and policy making. We first proposed the theoretical framework of urban-rural coordinated development and established coordinated index system. Then, by GIS and ESDA methods, spatial patterns and characteristics of urban-rural coordinated development were explored, and its influencing factors were analyzed based on spatial econometric model. The results are shown as follows: 1）The urban-rural coordinated development system consists of four subsystems, which are factors, structures, functions and policies. The coordinated urban-rural development depends on the mutual coordination and cooperation of elements within the subsystem and positive mutual feedback evolvement among the subsystems. 2） Sub-indices such as investment, industry, income and consumption between urban and rural areas take on significant spatial differences, respectively. The degree of variation of investment coordination index, industry coordination index, income coordination index and consume index reduces in turn. 3） Urban-rural integrated coordination index shows obviously spatial differences among the east, middle, northeast and west of China, and takes on spatial agglomeration. High-level areas of coordination index gather in the eastern coastal region and a few cities in the central and western China, while low-level areas are mostly located in the central and western China, especially showed in the provincial map. 4) Economic growth, urbanization, rural investment and domestic consumption had significantly positive effects on urban-rural coordination development, while urban investment had negative effects. Meanwhile, education investment, education level and infrastructure did not have significant effects due to the misallocation of resources between urban and rural areas. These findings are of use to integrate urban and rural development in different aspects. Firstly, we should appropriate urbanization models should be explored in different areas according to the areal characters and its urban-rural development transformation status. Secondly, it is essential for the Chinese authorities to change its traditional planning model and implement rural revitalization plan, especially improving rural infrastructure construction, public services and the comprehensive function of the town. Thirdly, we should reform binary urban and rural managing system gradually and moderately, according to taking a sufficient consideration of the status and trend of inside and outside urban-rural coordinated systems.

Key words: urban-rural development, coordination index, China