Research On Spatio-Temporal Variation Of Modern Urbanization Quality Of Hunan Province

With the development of economic in China, boosted level of urbanization and rapid expansion of numbers and size of cities, several "city diseases" such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution, resource wasting and the growing gap between urban and rural followed. In order to figure out these problems and make a better planning and control of development of cities, it’s a must that we should evaluate the modern urbanization quality from different aspects which those problems belongs to in a comprehensive way, and moreover, by analyzing the driving mechanism and proposing measures to enhance the modern urbanization quality, we can provide theoretical basis for a better planning and control of modern urbanization quality. This paper studies on a basis of 14 prefecture-level cities of Hunan province, by a constructed comprehensive evaluation index system composed of economic development, social development, residents’ lives, resources and environment and urban and rural overall development, we analyzed the modern urbanization quality of Hunan province and have the following conclusion:Firstly, there is an obvious variation of modern urbanization quality in the prefecture cities level. Changsha makes a score of 89.4 in the composite score, which is the highest among the 14 cities, while Huaihua only scored the lowest 62.9. behind Changsha, Zhuzhou, Changde and Xiangtan scored 77.0,74.7 and 74.2 respectively, Shaoyang and Xiangxi scored 64.2 and 63.5 respectively, which is a backward position among 14 cities. On the regional level, northeastern of Hunan province has a higher level of modern urbanization quality, which area include Changde, Yueyang, Changsha, Xiangtan, Zhuzhou and Chenzhou; central cities has a moderate level, which include Zhangjiajie, Yiyang, Loudi, Hengyang and Yongzhou; western cities has a low level which include Xiangxi, Huaihua and Shaoyang. Totally speaking, modern urbanization quality of Zhuzhou, Hengyang, Yueyang, Yiyang, Changde, Zhangjiajie, Loudi, Chenzhou and Yongzhou demonstrated an increase trend, while Changsha, Xiangtan, Huaihua, Shaoyang and Xiangxi shows a decrease trend.Secondly, from the time scale we can see there is an obvious increasing trend of almost all cities, and the rising process was very stable. In last decade, the composite score of modern urbanization quality of Changsha raised from 8.0 to 12.1 with a steady process, and during 2008-2009, the score had a decrease from 10.1 to 10.0; Zhuzhou raised from 7.8 to 11.8 with a steady process; Xiangtan raised from 8.1 to 12.2, with a steady process, and the biggest increase happened in 2006-2007(1.3); Hengyang, Shaoyang, Yueyang and Changde increased from 8.5 to 12.2,8.2 to 12.0,8.2 to 11.8,8.2 to 12.0 respectively, which also demonstrated an steady increase. Score of Zhangjiajie raised from 8.4 to 11.9 with a decrease from 10.1 to 9.7 during 2008-2009. Score of Yiyang, Chenzhou, Yongzhou, Huaihua, Loudi and Xiangxi increased steady, raised from 8.1 to 12.4, 8.3 to 12.5,8.2 to 12.5,9.0 to 11.9,8.5 to 12.3 and 7.6 to 12.5 respectively.Thirdly, from comprehensive evaluate, we analyzed the driving and restriction factors of spatio-temporal variation of modern urbanization quality among the 14 cities in Hunan province. Boosted economic and increased quality of residents’lives makes the driving factors of Changsha, Zhuzhou and another cities with good economic foundation while the restriction factors are low urban and rural over development and constricts of resources and environment. In cities of under-development and low utilization rate of resources such as Yongzhou and Xiangxi, driving factors are increased quality of residents’ lives and the decreasing gap between urban and rural, while restriction factors are slow economic growth and constricts of resources and environment.Fourth, based on the different restriction factors on urbanization quality among cities in Hunan province, we raised several measures to increase urbanization quality which are promote industrial transfer and upgrade, promote the development of economic; Improve the science-education-culture-health system and service facilities, promote social development and improve the utilization rate of resources, take actions to protect the environment; make efforts to decrease the gap, promote the over all development of urban and rural.