Abstract:

Taking 16 cities in the Yangtze River Delta as the object of study,this paper analyzes the freight volume dynamics and influencing mechanism since the mid1980s from the aspects of quantitative growth,evolution in spatial pattern,spatial competition and pattern change of container cargo flow.The results show that, both the freight volume,freight turnover and the transportation range in the Yangtze River Delta have increased by a large margin and the regional spatial structure of freight volume has a complicated change with the rapid economic growth during the past 20 years.The centralization pattern is obvious in these years,Shanghai,Nanjing,Hangzhou,Ningbo is prominent in freight volume,but the distribution of freight volume tend to equilibrium as a whole,meanwhile,the freight and production place appeared some isolated situation.The container cargo flow in the Yangtze River Delta is highly competitive.Shanghai initially established the position as the central hub port and Ningbo port has the obvious advantages of spatial agglomeration,but the general spatial agglomeration function of container port system is not prominent.The driving mechanism of freight dynamics is mainly influenced by economic globalization, global supply chain and manufacturing paradigm shift from the macroscopic level,while from the middle and microcosmic level,it was mainly affected by regional economic systems and integrated transport costs,regional segmentation and traffic management system,etc