Research on the Point-in-Time and Spatial Structure of Urban Integration in China

Abstract—Regional integration development reinforces the influence and communication among intraregional cities. Meanwhile, big cities gradually turned to metropolitanization. In the dual transition situation of regions and cities, urban integration, called as Tongchenghua in Chinese, has become a kind of urban functional area in the last decade. There are subtle differences from commonly known urban conurbation; urban integration is initiated in China, and its practices precede the theories. Therefore, lacking of advanced theoretical guidance of both developed western countries and native academia provides a huge boost in the study on urban integration. The research applies diachronic and synchronic analysis on 13 whole samples and 4 sub-samples, based on socioeconomy data and satellite imagery. Firstly, the research defines the point-in-time of urban integration, by analyzing historical data of socioeconomy and satellite imagery. Secondly, it identifies the special characteristics of urban integration, by comparing the satellite imagery of all the urban integration areas synchronously. Finally, the research proposes 2 results. It names three points-in-time during the process of urban integration: the germinate point, the start point, and the grow point. And, according to the characteristics of spatial pattern, it names 3 types: concentrated-spread, multi-group fragmentation, and halfway-point growth. The research can promote the development of urban-rural regional structure theories, and guide the development and construction of practices of urban integration. Furthermore, it’s aimed at constructing the first theory of regional development initiated in China, and setting the benchmark on the regional coordinated development for developing countries.