Research on the Urban Influence Domains in China.

Through research on the gravity model, the paper studies the geometric characteristics of urban influence domain and the principles for the change of urban influence domain along with the evolution of distance decay index, calculates the distribution of the gravitational field by using ARCGIS, establishes a spatial cluster system for the megalopolis in china, delineates urban influence domains by dissolving spatial features, and compartmentalizes China into 13 economic regions based on the megalopolis clusters and urban influence domains combining with the physical and economic locations. Major conclusions are: the distribution of urban gravitational field is the manifestation of regional unbalanced development; the spatial structure and characteristic of urban system can be studied through the distribution situation of urban gravitational field; the urban influence domains in China have not formed the mosaic structure of a standard regular hexagon; the economic region with weak urban gravitational field may be compressed by the region with stronger urban gravitational field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]