中印城镇化区域差异及城镇体系空间演化比较

中国和印度作为两个正在崛起的大国,发展历程较为相似,但发展路径和模式差异较大。两个国家政治制度、经济体系、发展环境等的显著差异已经吸引了学者的广泛关注,本文将从地理学视角出发,重点关注两国城镇化及城镇体系的区域差异和空间演化过程。以人口普查和联合国城市人口数据为基础,采用空间分析、参数估计、非参数估计等多种方法,对中印两国城镇化和城镇体系的空间特征进行系统的比较分析,结果表明：① 20世纪90年代以来,中国城镇化的区域差异由南北差异转变为沿海—内部差异,而印度南北差异的格局则基本稳定;② 从省（邦）级空间尺度来看,中国和印度的人口密度和城镇化率都呈现正相关关系,当城镇化率超过50%后,两者的相关性更为显著,但是近年来中国人口密度与城镇化率的相关性不断增强,而印度则呈现降低的趋势;③ 现阶段中印两国以大中城市为主的城镇体系符合位序—规模分布的特征,但是经济改革对于两个国家城镇体系空间演化的影响差异明显,改革使得中国城镇发展的主要驱动力由地理历史因素向经济系统空间结构转变,而印度城镇发展的驱动力始终是地理历史因素,经济改革甚至降低了经济系统空间结构对城镇发展的影响。

Comparative research on regional differences in urbanization and spatial evolution of urban systems between China and India

As two rising great powers, China and India have undergone similar development processes, but they also exhibit significant differences in development paths and patterns. The significant differences in political systems, economic systems, and developmental environment between the two countries have attracted great attention from scholars. This research focuses on the regional differences and spatial evolution processes in urbanization and urban systems between the two countries from a geographical perspective. Based on the demographic censuses of both countries and the urban population data from the United Nations, this paper systematically compared and analyzed the spatial characteristics of urbanization and urban systems in China and India using various methods including spatial analysis, parameter estimation, and nonparametric estimation. The results indicate that: (1) Since the 1990s, the regional differences in urbanization in China have transformed from south-north differences to coastal-inland differences, whereas the north-south differences in India have been stable. (2) In terms of the spatial scale at the province (state) level, the population densities and urbanization rates were positively correlated in both countries. The correlation is more significant when the urbanization rate is higher than 50%. However, in recent years, the correlation between population density and urbanization rate kept increasing in China, while such correlation has been decreasing in India. (3) Currently, the urban system is dominated by large and medium-sized cities in China and India, which complies with the characteristics of the rank-size distribution. But the economic reform has exerted significantly different effects on the spatial evolution of the urban systems in the two countries. The economic reform has changed the major driving force for urban development in China from geological and historical factors to the spatial structure of the economic system. However, in India, the driving forces for urban development have always been geological and historical factors, and the economic reform even decreased the effect of the spatial structure of the economic system on urban development.