Research On The Evolution Of Inter-County Economic Network Structure In Hunan Province

Based on the economic and social development data of 99 Counties in Hunan Province at four time points in 2003,2008,2013,and 2018,this paper adopts the entropy method to evaluate these comprehensive qualities,in order to fully understand the gap between these counties and its evolution of economic and social development.This research descripts and analyses the characteristics of strength and structure of inter-county economic ties,and economic spatial organization in different periods from Hunan Province as a whole,the four Economical Plates,and some counties.Methodwise,this article deploys social network analysis and the gravitational model with Ucinet 6.From the three scales of Hunan Province as a whole,the four economic sectors,and some counties,The strength of inter-county economic ties,the structure of intercounty economic ties,and the characteristics of economic space organization in different periods in Hunan Province were described and analyzed.Results and its visualization using Arc GIS 10.2 from perspective of time and space show that:(1)Changsha City has the highest rank in county comprehensive quality than others,and in law of the primate city,for which is that Changsha City is the residence of the Hunan Provincial government and has advantages in resource allocation.The counties ranking above 15 are mostly located in the east of the “Cili County-Linwu County”.(2)Calculations in the strength of inter-county economic connections in Hunan Province measured by a modified gravity model present that: Since 2003,the economic ties between Changsha City and the surrounding counties are the closest,forming a network of economic ties with Changsha as the core.With the development of economy and society,the economic connection strength network with Changsha as the core has further developed,and a large economic connection strength network including the county-level economic nodes in Chang-Zhu-Tan area,Dongting Lake area,Southern Hunan area and Big Western Hunan area has gradually formed.In addition,the economic connection strength network with Huaihua city as the core in the western Hunan region is also integrated into the economic connection strength network.(3)Based on the social network analysis method with Ucinet 6 software,this study analyses the overall network density,dot centrality(out-degree,in-degree),central degree potential(out-degree,in-degree)of the Hunan inter-county economic network structure at different time nodes,Intermediate centrality,intermediate central potential,and the characteristics and evolution of condensed subgroups.This article argues that the economically connected areas of Hunan Province are mainly concentrated in the counties of Changsha-Zhutan-Changzhou and other regions,and the trend is obvious.However,from the spatial distribution and evolution of intermediate centrality,it can be seen that the Dongting Lake region,southern Hunan region,and western western Hunan region have formed better "middleman" county regions,which facilitates the transmission of signals of economic interaction to more counties and promotes economic and social development in marginal counties.The distribution characteristics and evolution of the agglomerate subgroups sub-divide the inter-county economic contact network in Hunan Province.The second-level subgroups centered on Changsha City have higher external interactions and internal connections than others.Through a comprehensive analysis of the inter-county economic network in Hunan Province,The conclusions show that there exist east-west differences in the GDP,social development status,and economic connection strength in the county areas of Hunan Province.On the economic spatial pattern characterised as “one core” in Changsha City and “multiple subcenters” in Changde City,Yueyang City,Hengyang City,and Huaihua City has appeared.