Content of "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice in our journal

  • Published in last 1 year
  • In last 2 years
  • In last 3 years
  • All

Please wait a minute...
  • Select all
    |
  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    LU Dadao
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 2951-2960. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412001

    This paper reviews the social background of "pole-axis system" theory and the "T-shaped" land development and economic layout framework in China, especially the objective conditions that the country cannot implement another "strategic shift" of national development priorities, and the academic contribution of economic geography serving to national strategic development, as well as some concepts, ideas, knowledge and methods to achieve this goal. According to the significance and the scholars' comments of this theory and model in national practice, this paper describes the growth course and academic responsibility of an economic geographer to inspire the academic community to uphold the rigorous attitude of seeking truth from facts to make greater contributions to the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    LIANG Jinshe
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 2961-2971. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412002

    The k = 4 system of the central place theory, growth pole and development axis, corridor or axis development, growth pole and growth center, poles and corridors development, and the small-scale development axis are typical development models with spatial significance. In this article, we compare them with the "pole-axis system" theory proposed by Chinese geographer, Lu Dadao, and investigate the similarities and differences in terms of core ideas, attentions and structures. It is shown that these six models have respectively discovered or concerned the various roles of industrial linkages or/and linear infrastructure in spatial economic development, focusing on spatial interaction mechanisms of some roles and also have spatial development propositions. Each of the six models may contribute to the studies on real striped economic system in some ways. However, the "pole-axis system" proposes the gradual diffusion of "pole-axis" and its hierarchical system generation mechanism, and integrates the generation mechanism of the "pole-axis system" with regional resources, environment, and development potential to determine the order of China's spatial development. It is the key feature that distinguishes the "pole-axis system" from the other aforementioned models.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    HE Canfei, SHENG Hantian, DAI Xiaomian
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 2972-2990. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412003

    In the past 40 years since the theory of "pole-axis system" was put forward, its connotation has been continuously enriched, which has profoundly influenced the theoretical and empirical research in multiple disciplines. The theory has also greatly contributed to China's spatial development of national territory, planning and construction of urban system, and layout of major productive forces. In the new era, China's major regional strategies have profound scientific connotations, yet they still need to overcome blockages such as loose connections within and between urban agglomerations in the course of practice. In this sense, the framework of multi-dimensional proximity from the perspective of evolutionary economic geography can be instructive, since it further focuses on the dimensional linkages of cognitive proximity, technological proximity, relational proximity, and social proximity. Thus, in the context of "dual circulation" strategy, China's territorial space development should be further guided by the theory of "pole-axis system" as well as the framework of multi-dimensional proximity, accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity, constructing a resilient network of inter-regional industrial collaboration, and comprehensively empowering regional high-quality development.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    SUN Bindong, ZHENG Xiaohui
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 2991-3006. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412004

    As the economic polarization has become increasingly prominent of China, underdeveloped regions urgently need radiation and driving forces. Simultaneously, with the notable trends of population return and decentralization, initial conditions have emerged for developing new growth points. China's territorial spatial governance faces new missions, necessitating the exploration of the contemporary value of the "pole-axis system" theory to guide the practice of coordinated regional development. Based on the essence of the "pole-axis system" theory, the central place theory, and the central flow theory, this paper proposes a polycentric and coordinated regional development model of large countries. Drawing upon the empirically verified effective radiation radius of first-tier central cities, this paper envisions establishing new first-tier central cities in the northwest and northeast regions, in addition to the existing four first-tier central cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong (Shenzhen), and Chongqing. This endeavor aims to establish a multi-tiered system of central cities that relies on metropolitan areas, urban agglomerations, and urban networks to foster specialized division of labor and collaboration among regions, ultimately guiding balanced national development. As a novel application and extension of the "pole-axis system" theory, the polycentric coordinated development of large countries contributes to achieving the diverse goals of "efficiency-equity-security" in the territorial spatial system. Regarding the implementation path, territorial spatial planning should serve as the guiding force, with market mechanisms as the foundation, and the active intervention of a promising government as the support. This will reverse the imbalanced regional development patterns in China, realize regional coordinated development, and provide spatial support for enhancing China's overall competitiveness.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    CAO Xiaoshu
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 3007-3014. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412005

    In the context of Anthropocene, the human-nature system is the main body of the surface earth system, and it is the result of the long-term interaction between society and nature, as well as the evolution of the man-land relationship. The formation of the human-nature system on the earth's surface is an objective process of socio-economic spatial organization, with scientific spatial organization structure and form. While, the "pole-axis system" is a scientific refinement of how to optimize the development of various spatial structures and development types, which can not only represent the space in the time chain, but also serve as an important theoretical support for spatial inversion and spatial planning. It can also nest in different scales from community to the whole world, with the point as the location space and the axis as the flowing space, forming a modern human-nature coupling spatial system. As a geographical entity space, national land space is a place where nature and human beings practice together, which is systematic. It is vertically composed of a geological structure system, natural ecological system, infrastructure link system, and human-nature coupling system. Horizontally, it is a spatial pattern formed by units, zones, and divisions. Its connection is linked by the transportation of matter and energy. Therefore, the "pole-axis system" can be further extended to the theory of the territorial space system in epistemology and methodology, which includes the territorial space value, function, guarantee and security. Theoretically, it also supports the realization of territorial space value, territorial space security guarantee, territorial space evolution mechanism, and territorial space optimal regulation. The territorial space system is realized through the territorial space planning system, so as to realize the optimal system of territorial space governance, moving towards the harmonious coexistence of human and nature, along with the sustainable development of the community of human destiny.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    LU Yuqi
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 3015-3029. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412006

    Yangtze River Delta, as a pivotal region where the coastal axis and the riverside axis intersect, is characterized by complexity, diversity and typicality of the spatial structural evolution. Therefore, understanding its evolutionary pattern and constructing a theoretical model has important theoretical significance and application value. According to the core-periphery structure theory, the Yangtze River Delta can be divided into a core area that is centered on the Taihu Lake Basin and remaining periphery areas. However, due to its location at the junction of the river and the sea, a gateway area has emerged within the periphery area, thus forming a spatial structure that is composed of the core area and the gateway area. In the early period, the core area was centered on Suzhou, and a five-tier central place structure became well established since ancient times. However, the gateway area kept evolving and underwent three main changes: in ancient times, the gateway area was centered on Yangzhou, forming the canal gateway cluster; in the modern age, the gateway area became centered on Shanghai, forming an offshore gateway cluster; and in the contemporary era, the gateway area became centered on Ningbo, forming an oceanic gateway cluster. Their corresponding navigation capacities were 500 t, 10,000 t, and 200,000 t, respectively. Therefore, in addition to the existing central place theory and seaport spatial structure theory, the spatial structure evolution of the Yangtze River Delta presents a new evolutionary model: namely, the fusion evolutionary model of central places and port gateways. According to this model, in the early period, it was an endogenous evolution of the core area's spatial structure, which was in line with Christaller's hexagonal structure; while in modern times, the evolution of the spatial structure of the Yangtze River Delta was no longer dominated by central places, but rather, it became dominated by the gateway areas, making the k = 3 market principle turn into the k = 4 transportation principle. In this way, the Yangtze River Delta provides a globally exemplary empirical case for validating the process test of the central place theory, analyzing functional attributes of urban centrality and gateway, and refining the relevant theoretical model.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    CAO Weidong, CAO Ji, ZHANG Wenrui, YUE Wenbo, CAO Yuhong
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 3030-3049. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412007

    Major productive forces are crucial to the country's long-term stability and sustained prosperity, and are also a powerful means of improving economic efficiency, promoting coordinated regional development, and strengthening international competitiveness. This paper summarizes the layout of China's major productive forces and their spatial patterns in different periods by collecting multi-source data such as historical documents, regional socio-economic statistical data and remote sensing of light, and borrowing technical methods such as MCR model, kernel density analysis and standard deviation ellipse, etc. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The layout of China's major productive forces follows the law of economic geography agglomeration and diffusion cycle evolution, and has experienced the evolution of balanced development - decentralised development - centralised development - coordinated development-high-quality complementary development. This is manifested in the concentration of 156 projects to a few geographic spaces in the western region of China, dispersion in the central and western regions during the Third Front Movement, concentration along the eastern coast, and a gradient advancement toward the inland. However, the focus of development has always been in the southeast region along the Hu Huanyong line. (2) The results of the spatial pattern simulation of major productive forces follow the theory of regional development stages. During China's high-level development process, different spatial patterns have emerged successively: points (core poles), point-axis, and point-axis system (network), forming a multi-level pole-axis system with a "T" main framework along the coast and the Yangtze River, supplemented by other central cities and transportation arteries, in order to promote the balanced development of territorial space. (3) The main influencing factors of the development layout of China's major productive forces vary from time to time, with the geo-environment influencing the spatial layout in the early stage, and then the combined force of national strategies, policies and markets; GTWR further reveals that there is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the factors influencing the development layout. The GTWR further reveals that there is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the factors affecting its development layout. This study focuses on the layout and spatial patterns of the major productive forces, which can provide practical references for optimizing the layout of major productive forces and constructing a regional economic layout and national spatial system with complementary advantages and high-quality development.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    LIU Yungang, LIU Xuanyu, WANG Yuqu
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 3050-3062. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412008

    Owing to the long-standing land-sea division, the regional development theory represented by the pole-axis system has conducted insufficient research on the development potential of the land-sea transition zone and even the marine space. In this context, this paper re-explores the marine orientation of the "pole-axis system" theory and investigates the application of the pole-axis system beyond the land-based thinking. Specifically, taking the currently highly-regarded development of the Hainan Free Trade Port (HFTP) as an example, it commences from the general laws of island economies, traces the geographical relationships and development history of Hainan Island, and based on the expansion of the "pole-axis system" theory, deliberates on the development direction and ideas of the HFTP. This paper emphasizes that: (1) The spatial metaphor of isolation and connectivity of islands within the context of the pole-axis system are mutually reinforcing and compatible, and the cultivation and development of the pole-axis system of the HFTP need to take into account the synergetic effects of the island's geographical relationships at different spatial scales, namely the global, national, regional, and local levels. (2) The pole-axis system of HFTP highlights the role of "flow" rather than geographical proximity in the growth of islands and island clusters. The focus on island-island relationships needs to shift from centrality to the exploration of node attributes, while the focus on land-island relationships needs to change from hierarchy to functional complementarity. (3) The HFTP needs to establish an economic and industrial composite pole-axis system that integrates land, island, and sea, and deepen the intrinsic driving force for the coordinated development of different geographic units through the bidirectional interaction of "defining development based on the sea" and "leaning on the land towards the sea". This study hopes to contribute to enriching and enhancing the marine orientation of the "pole-axis system" theory and deepening the study of islands, including the HFTP, other island economies, and the entire island.

  • "Pole-Axis System" Theory: Review and Practice
    CHEN Mingxing, CHENG Jiafan, SUN Dongqi
    Acta Geographica Sinica. 2024, 79(12): 3063-3079. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb202412009

    In 1984, Professor Lu Dadao first proposed the "pole-axis system" theory and the "T-shaped" spatial structure of China's territorial development and economic layout at the National Economic Geography and Land Planning Symposium. As a model of regional "optimal structure and optimal development", the theory has become one of the milestone research results in the development of human and economic geography in China after continuous improvement and deepening. By reviewing the development process of the "pole-axis system" theory and the "T-shaped" spatial structure, this paper reviews the quantitative characteristics, institutional distribution, published journals, research topics, and hot topic evolution of relevant research literature, and clarifies the characteristics and trends of research in relevant fields in the past 40 years. The findings are as follows: (1) The theory of "pole-axis system" and the "T-shaped" spatial structure have been receiving continuous attention from the academic community, with the number of studies showing a significant correlation with the release of national policies. (2) Key research institutions, such as the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, and Central China Normal University, serve as prominent representatives in this field. These institutions collectively cover all regions of China, which may be closely tied to empirical studies of the theories in various areas. (3) The research articles have been published in multidisciplinary journals, exerting a notable influence primarily in the fields of geography and economics. (4) The research themes, research areas and methods of the "pole-axis system" theory have been continuously expanded and enriched in the three stages of development. Then, based on policy analysis and representative evaluation, the research expounds the extensive application and profound influence of the "pole-axis system" theory and the "T-shaped" spatial structure in the fields of territorial spatial planning, regional development strategy and multi-scale regional planning. Furthermore, this paper probes into its application value in the fields of territorial spatial planning with multiple-plan coordination, regional coordinated development, new urbanization and urban-rural integrated development, as well as allocation of new quality productive forces and other major productive forces in the new era.