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Evolvement characteristics of population and economic gravity centers in tarim river basin, uygur autonomous region of xinjiang, China

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Abstract

Using the data at the county level and the regional gravity center model, we calculated six key socio-economic gravity centers, namely population, GDP, output values of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and arable land area in the Tarim River Basin for each year from 1980 to 2009. We inspected the spatial dynamics of these centers and found that the gravity centers of population and economy evolved simultaneously. The disproportional growth between the population and the economy is also analyzed. The results show that: 1) The gravity centers of the GDP, the output values of the main three industries and arable land area show migration trending from southwest to northeast, while the population gravity center shows an excessive growth in the southwest during the same time period. The migration amplitude of the GDP and output values of primary industry, secondary industry, tertiary industry are measurably higher than that of the population. 2) The population gravity center has a negative correlation with the gravity centers of secondary and tertiary industries output values in both longitudinal and latitudinal directions, and a positive correlation with that of primary industry output value in the longitudinal direction. Based on the analysis of correlation coefficient and offset distance, the imbalance between the population and the economy has increased since the 1980s, with regional economic differences now exceeding the international cordon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Science, Xinjiang University, Ürümqi, 830046, China

    Yang Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ürümqi, 830011, China

    Yaning Chen & Zhi Li

Authors
  1. Yang Wang
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  2. Yaning Chen
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  3. Zhi Li
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Correspondence to Yaning Chen.

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Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951003)

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Wang, Y., Chen, Y. & Li, Z. Evolvement characteristics of population and economic gravity centers in tarim river basin, uygur autonomous region of xinjiang, China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 23, 765–772 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-013-0643-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-013-0643-4

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