Abstract: Based on the clarifying of the meaning and content of environment risk assessment, this paper puts forward an index system of urban environmental risk assessment for Yangtze River Economic Zone combined with the characteristics of ecology, economy and society of this region, according to the theory of environmental risk. Then it takes cities at and above the prefecture level in the Yangtze River Economic Zone as the objects to analyze the spatial distribution pattern and agglomeration characteristics of environmental risk by the spatial statistical methods, such as spatial auto-correlation and hot spot analysis. The analytic results show that risk source hazard and sensitivity of receptor have significant characteristics of spatial agglomeration, but the recovery of the receptor hasn’t yet. The hot spot of environmental risk is Yangtze River Delta, while the cold spots are mainly distributed in Chongqing and Hunan. Finally, this paper suggests some countermeasures should be in-depth implemented in the cities of Yangtze river economic zone, such as major pollutants emission reduction, strengthening regional cooperation of environmental protection, establishing and improving the special environmental risk assessment platform, and strengthening environmental protection of the key ecological function areas, etc.
Key words：Yangtze River Economic Zone; city environmental risk; environmental risk assessment; spatial statistics