THE STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE URBAN AND TOWNSHIP SPATIAL ORGANIZATION PATTERN OF YANGTZE DELTA AREA

From an interlocking point of view between upgrading of the industrial structure and changing of the urban and township spatial mode and using clustering and principal component analysis approaches,this paper discusses the structure and characteristics of the urban and township spatial organization pattern of Yangtze Delta Area in order to provide with a scientific base for establishment of urban and township planning of the area consequently.Structurally,it includes two main parts:i)the current state and hierarchy structure of development of the cities and towns in Yangtze Delta Area;and ii)the structure and characteristics of the urban and township spatial organization pattern of Yangtze Delta Area.Through detailed analysis,this paper mainly holds the arguments as follows:i)Yangtze Delta is now one of the most highly intensified urban agglomeration areas concentrated with cities and towns at different levels,and has been seen as the economic highland or pole nowadays in China with great vitality,actual strength of the economy and a clear-cut city and township hierarchy system in rank order;ii)concerned with the city and township hierarchy system of the urban agglomeration area of Yangtze Delta,a pyramidal type of hierarchical structure composed of super,big,middle and small sized cities and towns has been initially formed;iii)in nature,the urban agglomeration area of Yangtze Delta is actually a so-called polycentric and multiplex megalopolitan region;iv)specifically,in total,it contains 7 interdependent metropolitan zones;v)moreover,it has in fact a multi-cycle space structure comprised of 5 different sized and interlinked metropolitan regions,with evident core-periphery characteristics diverging outwardly from the core to outer zones like separate fingers of an open palm;vi)predictably,along with accelerated expansion of the area of Yangtze delta,within the total space of the Jiangsu,Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and Shanghai Municipality there will rise a Xuhuai metropolitan zone in inland in the future;vii)meanwhile,along with further growth of the economy and absorbing other cities of Liuan,Chaohu and Chuzhou,Hefei,capital city of Anhui province,will lead to forming a new metropolitan zone,and then together with previous Nanjing Metropolitan Region,producing Nanjing Super Metropolitan Region with a binuclear structure;viii)in sum,through interconnection and interaction between individual metropolitan regions,the urban agglomeration area of Yangtze Delta is at the moment onto a critical period in optimizing the overall network structure and promoting further functional integration of the city and township system.In this,by and large,a concerted action of coordinated planning in this regard is definitely needed.