Quantitative measurement of the effects of administrative division adjustments on regional development

Administrative divisions are the important foundation of national governance and social development,and the adjustment of administrative divisions is a critical way to promote regional coordinated development.Under the background of globalization and regionalization,timely adjustment of administrative divisions is a major step to reconstruct the regional de-velopment pattern.In the perspective of regional coordinated development,this paper con-structs an Administrative Rank Potential Energy (ARPE) model to explore the mechanisms of administrative division adjustment (ADA) under coordinated regional development based on the theory of regional interaction,spatial field energy model and power exponential function.The results show that:(1) The development potential and influence of an administrative re-gion are closely related to the administrative jurisdiction,administrative resources,and the potential of regional coordinated development.(2) The growth rate of ARPE in the study area from 2010 to 2015 was 20.7％ compared to the period 2005 to 2010,and the potential for coordinated development increased to 3.05％ from 0.21％ before the "cancelling" the prefec-ture-level city of Chaohu.(3) The measurement results of the usefulness of ADA can not only distinguish the complex impacts brought about by social development,but also accord with real social and economic development conditions.The ARPE focuses on the both regional integrated development and individual development,thereby serving as a reference for ex-plaining and evaluating adjustments to administrative divisions at the macro-and mi-cro-scales.