Assessment and Empirical Study on the Relationship between Infrastructure Construction and Urban-Rural Development
中国基础设施与城乡一体化的关联发展

Urban-rural development has always been illustrated as the interdependent and interaction relationship, represented by the free flow of population, commodities, capital and information between urban and rural areas, which, in some sense, guarantees the effective and efficient uses of resources in urban and rural areas. It is self-evident that the construction of regional infrastructure is a precondition for regional urbanization.The improvement of public infrastructure shortens the "spatial distance" between urban and rural areas, widens the built-up areas, pushes outside the urban fringe and forms, in some time, a new form of spatial complexity in which urban and rural areas are intensely mixed or "interlocked". The joint development of urban and rural areas depends on the increase of capital investment for infrastructures mainly cover transportation, telecommunication, education, medical facilities and welfare. We can safely come to a conclusion that regional infrastructure is indispensable to the development of urban and rural areas and lays the foundation for the relationship generation between regional infrastructure and urban-rural development. On the other hand, the strong interaction between urban and rural areas will promote the construction and improvement of regional infrastructure. Many scholars have paid much attention to the relationship between regional infrastructure and urban-rural development now. It has important implications for the construction of infrastructure and improvement of social and economic benefits to find out and assess the relationship between regional infrastructure and urban-rural development.