Impact of Administrative Division Adjustment on Location and Accessibility of Heifei, China

The location may appear to be extremely important due to changes of some factors. Administrative division expansion of Hefei in August 2011 will affect its location advantage and accessibility. In this paper, updated data of the study area were collected including administrative division, transportation network and economic data, by using GIS spatial analysis methods and establishing the economic potential model, quantitatively evaluated the location advantage and accessibility of Hefei before and after the administrative area adjustment, and analyzed the economic relationship change between Wanjiang urban belt cities and Nanjing based on the gravity model. The results show that Hefei occupies the highest accessibility while Maanshan, Chuzhou and Wuhu comparatively rank behind before the administrative division adjustment, and the descending order is Maanshan, Hefei, Chuzhou and Wuhu after the administrative division adjustment. Although the location advantages of Hefei relatively reduced, the economic relationship have been further enhanced on the regional level, which played an important role in formation of the industrial cluster in Wanjiang urban belt and enhancing regional competitiveness, for easy integration into the Pan-Yangtze River Delta city group and promoting regional economic development in Anhui Province.