The Comparison and Optimization of Spatial Structure Benefits of Urban Agglomerations: A case of Jiangxi Province

Spatial structure benefits of urban agglomerations have critical impacts on the overall development of urban agglomerations. Thanks to the help of ArcGIS and basic geographic data, spatial structure benefits of urban agglomerations have been defined and expounded in this article. Then, the comparative study between Poyang Lake urban agglomeration and the Great Nanchang urban agglomeration has been conducted from 3 aspects, that is, scale merit, distance effect and spatial association benefit. The research results show that: Poyang Lake urban agglomeration has its outstanding strengths which are larger number of cities and bigger population size, however, some shortcomings of lower compactness, unobvious city hierarchical structure, poor spatial accessibility and weak spatial connection between some important cities coexist. Therefore, the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration exhibits a characteristic ofbig empty. On the contrary, the Great Nanchang urban agglomeration which has fewer number of cities, smaller population size and poor economies of scale,presents the highlights of higher compactness, obvious urban hierarchical structure, better spatial accessibility and good spatial connection. In order to maximize the spatial structure benefits of urban agglomeration, basing on the comprehensive analysis, a programme of Nanchang urban agglomeration is put forward.