Abstract:

Globallocal force has made a profound impact on the regional urban system under opening condition,especially for the developed areas along the river.The paper gave a study on urban system along the Yangtze River based on Fractal Theory in Jiangsu Province in 2006.Four characteristics have been summarized:(1) The size of the hierarchical structure of the urban system comply with Zipf's Law,and the primary city of Nanjing is not in a position of absolute monopoly in the regional city system.(2) It has been proved that the regional cities and towns are in close cont〖JP2〗act and has excellent transport network accessibility,〖JP〗according to the spatial correlation dimension.(3) The fractal structure of Yangzhou,Zhenjiang, Nanjing and Suzhou cities is much better,while that of Nantong,Taizhou,Wuxi and Changzhou is poor.(4)The fractal structure of Yangzhou of regional urban system is most perfect,and the spatial pattern has not changed.

Key words: fractal theory/ urban system/ spatial structure/riverside area along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province