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| SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF URBAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHEAST CHINA SINCE 1990 |
| WANG Yang1, XIU Chun-liang2 |
1. Yangzhou Urban Planning and Research Center, Yangzhou 225002, China;
2. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China |
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Abstract The research of urban social development, which interests Chinese researchers much more than ever before, is one of the important areas of geography studies. This paper examines the spatial differentiation of the urban social development in Northeast China. The authors establish an evaluation system of social indicator which is based on the analysis of the 37 prefectural-level cities in northeast China and 14 social indicators of the years of 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2007. Also, they calculate the scores of social development level of each of prefectural-Level cities by using the evaluation matrix and its correction method. Based on these scores, firstly, the authors analyze the spatial characteristics of the change in social development with GIS technology. Secondly, they examine the direction and the trend of differentiation with the specific gravity method. Thirdly, the relative changes of social development of each prefectural-level city is measured by the Nich method. Finally, the authors research the mechanism of the spatial differentiation with the correlation analysis and the qualitative method. The result shows that (1) the trend of spatial differentiation, which has been obvious in urban social development since 1990 in Northeast China, has been weakened since 2000; (2) spatial differentiation mainly occurred in the cities along the Harbin-Dalian railway, the Shenyang-Shanhaiguan railway and the Manzhouli-Suifenhe railway as well as between the cities in urban agglomerations and other cities; (3) the main factors which impact spatial differentiation of social development in Northeast China are the regional transportation, the investment power, the internal driving force and the market power; (4) the secondary factors which impact spatial differentiation of social development in Northeast China are the regional development policy, the man-made influence and the resource possession.
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Received: 27 August 2009
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2010, Vol. 25 
