TY - JOUR

T1 - The research of coupling rural development and economy cluster in Fujian province

AU - Xiao, Lishan

AU - Yu, Zhaowu

AU - Ye, Hong

AU - Zhang, Guoqin

AU - Guo, Qinghai

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - China's urbanization has significantly influenced rural areas. This research, taking Fujian province as a study case, focused on rural development and its trend in coastal regions. A rurality index was introduced to measure the level of rural development. Four dimensions of rurality were considered in the index including population size, population density, extent of urban built-up area and remoteness. The results showed that rurality has a significant spatialtemporal variation. Rurality declined from 2000 to 2010. In the spatial scale, rurality increased from southeast to northwest in 2000 and 2010. The spatial pattern was roughly consistent with distribution of landforms in Fujian province. The paper divided economic development into agricultural and non-agricultural types. Economic comparative advantage was evaluated by location quotients, which showed where economic sectors were more strongly represented in particular localities than they were in the province as a whole. The location quotients and their change were used to identify rural economic development. The results showed considerable spatial clusters. We characterized four economic clusters of rural Fujian including nonagricultural mature region, non-agricultural emerging region, agricultural cluster region and traditional agricultural region. The non-agricultural economy was clustered in southeast Fujian where the rurality was the weakest and the economy was well developed. This region was taken as non-agricultural mature region. A non-agricultural economy was emerging in west Fujian, which was non-agricultural emerging region. The two economic clusters, nonagricultural mature and emerging regions, accounted for most of Fujian. Agriculture was clustered in the north of the province, and the traditional agricultural economic region was the smallest. The paper examined the coupling relationship between rurality and location quotients to illustrate characteristics of rural economic clusters. There was a significant positive correlation between rurality and location quotients. The paper finally discussed the emergence and development of a new rural type, the town village. A similar phenomenon of town villages has been observed in other coastal provinces with a high urbanization rate in China. The paper can lay scientific foundation for advancing the combination of the national strategies of new urbanization and new rural construction.

AB - China's urbanization has significantly influenced rural areas. This research, taking Fujian province as a study case, focused on rural development and its trend in coastal regions. A rurality index was introduced to measure the level of rural development. Four dimensions of rurality were considered in the index including population size, population density, extent of urban built-up area and remoteness. The results showed that rurality has a significant spatialtemporal variation. Rurality declined from 2000 to 2010. In the spatial scale, rurality increased from southeast to northwest in 2000 and 2010. The spatial pattern was roughly consistent with distribution of landforms in Fujian province. The paper divided economic development into agricultural and non-agricultural types. Economic comparative advantage was evaluated by location quotients, which showed where economic sectors were more strongly represented in particular localities than they were in the province as a whole. The location quotients and their change were used to identify rural economic development. The results showed considerable spatial clusters. We characterized four economic clusters of rural Fujian including nonagricultural mature region, non-agricultural emerging region, agricultural cluster region and traditional agricultural region. The non-agricultural economy was clustered in southeast Fujian where the rurality was the weakest and the economy was well developed. This region was taken as non-agricultural mature region. A non-agricultural economy was emerging in west Fujian, which was non-agricultural emerging region. The two economic clusters, nonagricultural mature and emerging regions, accounted for most of Fujian. Agriculture was clustered in the north of the province, and the traditional agricultural economic region was the smallest. The paper examined the coupling relationship between rurality and location quotients to illustrate characteristics of rural economic clusters. There was a significant positive correlation between rurality and location quotients. The paper finally discussed the emergence and development of a new rural type, the town village. A similar phenomenon of town villages has been observed in other coastal provinces with a high urbanization rate in China. The paper can lay scientific foundation for advancing the combination of the national strategies of new urbanization and new rural construction.

KW - Fujian province

KW - Location quotients

KW - Rurality

KW - Town village

KW - Urbanization

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84937566826

VL - 70

SP - 615

EP - 624

JO - Journal of Chinese Geography

JF - Journal of Chinese Geography

SN - 0375-5444

IS - 4

ER -