Study on the urbanization development characteristics of Central Asia(1960-2009)

In recent 50 years,urbanization in five countries of Central Asia was continuously increased.However during this development stage it shows new characteristics.In this paper,based on the standard deviation index,coefficient of variation,urbanization composite index and the expansion of the city level we analyzed the urbanization development characteristics of Central Asia.The results show that urbanization rate and overall level existed obvious differences.The highest level of urbanization composite index was 74.1% which was appeared in Kazakhstan.The second is Turkmenistan,the lowest was Tajikistan,only 45.3%.On the whole,urbanization development level was imbalance.Relative gap of urbanization level of Central Asia's five countries increased from 5.46 in 1960 to 12.28 in 2009,but absolute gap of urbanization level of Central Asia's five countries increased from 0.15 in 1960 to 0.3 in 2009.Relative gap and absolute gap show that rising trend,explaining that in the time scale,the level of urbanization of Central Asia existed obvious differences.From a global perspective,urbanization level of Central Asia was lagging.Capital cities' urban expansion strength index and urban expansion speed existed big gap.Compaction degree range was not too much change,only ±0.5,showing that city shape,structure of the loose degree was relatively stable.