Rethinking the intensified disparity in urbanization trajectory of a Chinese coastal province and its implications

Given the complexity and diversity of local conditions and institutional arrangements that influence the regional urbanization in a country like China, the existing of regional disparity is predictable or even inevitable. However, excessive imbalance and lack of coordination will induce a series of social, economic and environmental problems that seriously threaten the sustainability of urbanization. The aim is to explore the changing trend of regional disparity through revisiting and comparing the differentiated trajectories of urban development in coastal and mountainous regions. An index system including 19 indices has been developed to evaluate the integrated level of regional urbanization from four perspectives: population, economy, society and space. Using a coastal province, Fujian, as a case study, the comparative analysis of coastal and mountainous urbanization from 2001 to 2012 has revealed that: 1) the coast-mountain gap has been doubled during the past decade; 2) the recent regional disparity is not merely quantitative but more qualitative and structural; 3) large scale mountain-to-coast migration and irrational investment are the main causes for an uncoordinated urbanizai:ion. Based on these results, the pertinence and effectiveness of the &#39;new-type&#39; urbanization strategy are discussed in view of regional urbanization regulation and suggestions to improve the &#39;mountain-coast&#39; coordination are put forward. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p