Abstract:

The concept of regional sustainable development has been widely accepted by all sectors of society and been embedded into the establishment of regional development strategies as well as social development plans. Optimizing land development patterns, which is usually based on regional difference analysis, is the core of promoting regional development. Spatiotemporal differentiation of comprehensive development level of middle reaches of Yangtze River was studied in this paper from five aspects, economic, resource utilization, environment protection， social service and population, and scientific and technological innovation. This is helpful to recognize the forming process of comprehensive development pattern, the potential problems and their causes, and thereby corresponding regional regulatory policies can be made by government. This is of great theoretical and practical significance to promote harmonious development among sub regions in middle reaches of Yangtze River and in turn to propel the rising of central China. Based on the statistical data of 37 prefecturelevel cities of middle reaches of Yangtze River in 2005 and 2011, supported by SPSS and GIS software, this paper assesses the comprehensive development level of the study area by means of generalized principal component analysis (GPCA), characterizes its spatiotemporal differentiation pattern, and then analyzes the causes. Results show that: (1) comprehensive scores of the region have increased while there is still great potential for further improvement; (2) the differences of development levels are striking and the trend of polarization are significant; and (3) the pattern of Wuhan and Changsha as center and Nanchang as well as Hefei as vice center has formed, but the influences of radiation generated by core cities are relatively weak, and different factors restrict different urban agglomerations. Geographical conditions, location and transportation as well as human capital and education are three main factors influenced the Yangtze River metropolitan area. With the development of science, technology and society, the traditional constraints brought about by natural environment is not the dominant factor. Geographical location and transportation are the most important drivers for the development of central China. For the four urban agglomerations, different strategies should be made to promote comprehensive development based on their current situation. Therefore, the cities in middle reaches of Yangtze River ought to advance their total amount of economic development while transferring economic and industrial structure and seeking for new economic growth opportunities. In the meanwhile, more investments are supposed to be made by local government for improving infrastructure, especially transportation facilities. It is necessary for the top developed metropolitans like Wuhan and Changsha taking fully advantages of the good geographical locations, abundant resources, innovative scientific and technological talents, as well as preferable policies to further develop their secondary and tertiary industries. It is also vital to maximize resource utilization efficiency, reduce energy consumption and focus more on environment protection rather than only spurring extensive economic growth. In addition, given the widening gap of comprehensive development levels, it is essential for highlevel government to strengthen macrocontrol in future, in order to coordinate urban and rural development, balance regional disparity among inner cities, narrow differences in and between regions, and improve technology transfer and advantages' complementarity