Abstract:

Urban-rural development transformation (URDT) is a comprehensive human process of elements transfer, strategy change and mechanism transformation between urban and rural areas in the new period of China. Under the background of coordinated industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization, the investigation of dynamic disciplines and spatial-temporal structure of URDT is of great importance to promote new-type urbanization and coordinated urban-rural development in China. The paper investigates the centrality, dynamics and differences of URDT in the Bohai Rim region by using the gridding and geostatistics methods, and analyzes the spatial sensibility probability of URDT based on the Logistic regression model. The results show that: (1) The centrality of URDT presents spatial difference structure with the central cities at different levels as the nucleus. In the plain areas, super city is the first-class agglomeration center, prefecture cities are the second-class agglomeration center while counties and towns are the third-class agglomeration center. The central agglomeration is not obvious in the mountainous areas. (2) The spatial expansion of URDT presents the feature of "agglomeration at small areas while dispersion at large areas". With Beijing, Tianjin, Jinan, Shenyang, Dalian, Shijiazhuang and Qingdao as the nucleuses, the urban space expands outwards. Places form as 'C' belt along the coastal lines and the harbors have fast land use conversion. These cities have become hot spots in the region. (3) Influenced by the 'point-axis-area' location elements, the spatial sensibility of URDT is of obvious regional differences and central agglomeration. Its suitable probing scale is 1200 meters. (4) The most sensitive zone of URDT in the future is the belt of Beijing-Tianjin-Binhai region. The new coordinated economic structure in the Bohai Rim region develops with Beijing and Tianjin as the core, and Liaodong Peninsula and Shandong Peninsula as two wings. The Bohai Rim region is the third largest economic zone in China behind the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. Based on the spatial centrality, dynamics and differences, urban-rural space optimization, different management and control measures should be taken to promote rational urban-rural development and layout in the Bohai Rim region in China.

Key words: urban-rural development transformation, centrality, dynamics, sensitivity, spatial structure, Bohai Rim region