Research On Interactive Development Of Urbanization Quality And Scale Of Cities In Shaanxi Province

Since the 1990 s, China has entered a rapid development period of urbanization. However, due to the extensive mode of development, it is widely criticized, especially in western region. From 18 th National People’s Congress on, the Party Central Committee has proposed to focus on the quality of urbanization, while take guiding the healthy development of urbanization as the point, which requires the local government has a good understanding of the city’s urbanization situation, improving urbanization quality and balancing quality with scale. It is imperative to research the interaction relationship between urbanization quality and scale in Shaanxi province, which can also make suggestions for other areas.Aimed at ten prefecture-level cities of Shaanxi Province, this paper appraises their urbanization quality by constructing index system and generalized principal component analysis. Then the paper analyzes the interaction between urbanization quality and scale, using panel VAR model. Finally, based on the results in variables of urbanization quality, we study their impacts on urbanization scale. The following conclusions are drawn by the research:(1)Cities’ urbanization scale in Shaanxi Province lags behind “normal development mode” except for Xi’an and Tongchuan city.(2)Ten cities’ urbanization quality in Shaanxi Province have been improving during the last ten years, with the pattern like “north high, south down, and central highlight”.(3)Long-term interaction of urbanization quality and scale exists in ten cities, and the effect of urbanization quality on scale is much more obvious than the otherwise.(4)Variables of urbanization quality in descending order according to the degree of influence are as follows: economic prosperity, public goods supply, urban and rural harmonious development, social security and the environment, where the ecological environment variable’s impact is not significant.We recommend that the local governments should take actions to promote the healthy urbanization based on the results of their urbanization quality. Conclusions and recommendations of this study have certain reference significance for municipal governments in understanding the status of regional urbanization development and taking measures to promote urbanization.