Analysis of Regional Social–Economic Spatial Pattern and Evolution along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal

Duo Bian, Mengying Zhang, Lili Kong, Bingbing Huang and Di Hu ()
Additional contact information
Duo Bian: School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Mengying Zhang: Jiangsu Surveying and Design Institute of Water Resources Co., Ltd., Nanjing 225127, China
Lili Kong: Jiangsu River Administration Bureau, Nanjing 225127, China
Bingbing Huang: Jiangsu Surveying and Design Institute of Water Resources Co., Ltd., Nanjing 225127, China
Di Hu: School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: With the proposal of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal has become an indispensable component of China’s economic development pattern. Despite relatively high regional-economic-development levels along the canal, there still exists a common imbalance in regional development which will hinder the high-quality collaborative development of the region, highlighting the importance of measuring this disparity. This study adopts the district and county as spatial scales and selects five dimensions: economic growth, livelihood benefits, green ecology, innovation drive, and food guarantee in order to construct a comprehensive socio-economic index. Entropy weight method, Moran index, and Theil index analyses are used to examine the recent ten-year evolution laws in regional socio-economic spatial patterns along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. Results indicate that socio-economic indicators designed for each dimension effectively measure both individual districts’ and counties’ economic situations as well as those of entire regions. In 2021, limited significance was observed regarding the level of regional economic agglomeration along the Grand Canal region, suggesting a tendency towards fragmented development rather than forming a well-coordinated model. Over the decade from 2011 to 2021, there was an increase in social and economic agglomeration. From a city unit perspective, developmental disparities among districts and counties within cities follow three distinct patterns. Cities at different stages of development can learn from each other’s models to enhance integration cooperation and collectively promote high-quality economic advancements in the Grand Canal region.

Keywords: regional; social–economic; spatial pattern; Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal; Grand Canal economic belt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1527/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1527/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1527-:d:1337305

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().