关键词: 城市扩展, 经济竞争力, 精明增长, 山东省

Abstract:

Urban development has its own spatial and temporal process. It is important to study urban spatial expansion for properly realizing the urbanization process and optimizing the urban distribution as well as increasing economic competitiveness and land use efficiency. Many decision makers and scholars have paid more and more attention to the phenomenon of urban expansion in Western countries since the 1950s and in China since the 1980s. This article aims at the mutual effect of urban expansion and economic competitiveness. Firstly, the article analyzes the inherent correlation between urban expansion and economic competitiveness by agglomeration economy and efficiency of urban land use as well as urban sprawl on the basis of urban geographical theory and new economic geography theory. Secondly, by designing seven indicators, the comprehensive urban expansion index is calculated by drawing lessons from Western countries and the regional disparity of urban expansion in Shandong Province is examined. Thirdly, economic competitiveness and its spatial difference are evaluated by using the statistical data. Fourthly, the inherent correlation between urban expansion and economic competitiveness in Shandong Province are studied by applying method of correlation analysis. Fifthly, some conclusions are drawn: (1) the more developed city has the more compact urban structure and higher population and employment density; the less derdeveloped city has lower population and employment density as well as more unreasonable land use structure. (2) The city needs to expand rapidly when its population and land size are small and the degree of its expansion will have effect on the more economic product and runs more effectively when it reaches the higher urbanization level. This is respectively embodied in the prefecture-level cities and county-level cities in Shandong Province. Finally, some ways to realize urban smart growth in Shandong Province are proposed, which include taking the step of the compact urban development and distribution in varied level cities, optimizing and upgrading of the industrial structure, strengthening industrial cluster in the sprawl of county-level cities and as well as reinforcement of megalopolis construction.

Key words: urban expansion, economic competitiveness, smart growth, Shandong Province