Abstract:
Villages and small towns are the foundation and bond of urban-rural linkage, which will play a vital role in urban-rural integration. Taking Nanjing for example, this research used the optimized field model to identify village and small towns' hinterland in three typical stages in recent 20 years, and divided the scopes of hinterlands following the principle of 'maximization', in order to analyze the spatial distribution and dynamic evolution characteristics. Then the influencing factors of hinterland evolution were discussed through regression model. It was found that since 2000, the evolution of field intensity in villages and small towns in Nanjing showed a multi-polarization trend of 'single center-three centers-multiple centers'. On one hand, the evolution of hinterlands presented polarization phenomenon (the strong were stronger). On the other hand, the regional equilibrium degree was improved (the weak were stronger). According to the regression analyses, it was found that the construction of urbanization, the level of marketization, the spatial intervention of policy and planning, the radiation of district center had significant impacts on village and small towns' hinterland, which would be the focus of further expansion and enhancement of hinterlands in the future.