Jin Fengjun

Understanding relationship between accessibility and economic growth: a case study from China (1990–2010)

China′s economy and transport infrastructure have both experienced rapid development since 1978, and especially since 1990. Today, China is the second-largest economic entity in terms of GDP and has the largest high-speed rail (HSR) network and the second-largest expressway network in the world. This paper explores the relationship between accessibility and economic growth in China from 1990 to 2010. In the study, the basic research units include 333 prefecture-level cities and four municipalities. We explore a bivariate analysis framework of accessibility and economic growth, and their increase rates, to examine this relationship using long-term panel data. The results indicate that, first, accessibility and economic growth show a significant positive relationship using both cross-section and panel data, while the increase rate in accessibility and GDP indicate no significant relationship using cross-section data and a poor significant relationship using panel data. Second, the distributions of local advantage are uneven. Cities with low local advantage with respect to accessibility and GDP are mainly located in China′s eastern coastal region or the provincial capitals, while those with low local advantage in terms of their increase rates are located in the western region. Third, as China′s economic growth and transport networks have evolved, the distribution of local advantage shows little change in terms of accessibility and GDP, but a greater change in terms of their increase rates, which is largely influenced by the distribution of expressway and HSR networks.

Complexity Perspectives on Transportation Network

Based on analyzing complex network theory applied in aviation,railway and urban transportation,we conclude that complexity of transportation network comes from its systematic complexity,and that the general analysis method of complex network ignores the attribute of geo-graphic space,which brings out many problems in analyzing real-world network.Complex network analysis based on statistical physics is mostly about theoretical analysis or data modeling on topol-ogy network,which has greater disparity in transportation networks and dynamic mechanism.Transportation network includes four kinds of network structure:demand network,organization network,route network and infrastructure network,and is a compound networked structure with open complex system.Transportation is a kind of science which focuses strongly on practical ap-plication,so it needs a recurrent force to drive theory to modal and method,then to practice.We put forward in future some vital aspects of complexity analysis on transportation network,which includes(1)elemental recognition on the structure complexity of transportation system;(2)network complex analysis based on geographic spatial characteristics;(3)analysis and application of net-work structure based on organization and efficiency;(4)interplay between the network structure and flow caused by interaction;(5)character of local structure of network and its effect on global structure;and(6)network evolution affected by systemic open.

STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF SHIPPING CENTERS AND TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS IN THE YELLOW SEA RIM

It is very important to establish cooperative mechanism to guarantee all members to develop their economies in the Yellow Sea Rim. In this paper, the development strategies of shipping centers and transportation network are discussed based on economic globalization tendency. The results argue that a united transportation network should be built in order to promote the economic competition of Northeast Asia in the world. As a key component of the economic cooperation, a hierarchical shipping centers network should be established with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Pusan, Kobe, and Tokyo as cores. The authorities of China, Japan, R. O. Korea and D. P. R. Korea should make more efforts to build a set of cooperation institutions based on raising the transportation efficiency.

Development level and coordination of highway networks of prefecture-level administrative regions in China

The study of regional transport development in different scales is one of important areas in transport geography research. There are big differences among the regions of China in highway network development. Examining the differences in the scale of prefecture-level administrative region(PAR) is more accurate than in provincial scale. In this paper, taking the 333 PARs in China as a research object, we studied the differences among the regions in highway network development and evaluated the degree of coordination between highway network development and economic development. Firstly, we selected 9 indicators reflecting the scale, quality, accessibility and transportation volume of highway networks and, by using the weighted average method, established a comprehensive evaluation model to evaluate the levels of highway network development and calculate highway indicators for the 333 PARs. Secondly, we selected 7 economic indicators to establish a comprehensive evaluation model for the regional economic development, and calculated the economic indicators for the 333 PARs. Thirdly, by using Pearson formula, we calculated the correlation coefficient between the highway index and the economic index. Finally, we established a coordination evaluation model and calculated the coordination index between the highway network development and the economic development for each PAR. The results and conclusions are as follows.(1) There are big differences among the different regions in highway network development; the highway indicators of the 333 PARs varied from 0.361 to 5.992, with Dongguan City and Shenzhen City being the highest and Ngari Prefecture and Nagqu Prefecture the lowest. Based on the highway index, the 333 PARs are classified into three levels, including 104, 121 and 108 PARs respectively, which shows a ladder-like distribution in a large scale, corresponding to the spatial pattern of Eastern, Central and Western China. It is worth pointing out that the 108 PARs in the third, or the underdeveloped, level of highway network development are mainly located in Western China.(2) The correlation coefficient between the highway index and the economic index was calculated to be 0.8328, which shows a highly positive correlation between the two index systems.(3) The coordination index of the 333 PARs varied from 0.223 to 1.634, with Dongguan City being the highest and Alxa League the lowest. Based on the coordination index, the 333 PARs are classified into three categories, namely, the advanced, coordinated, and lagged, including 90, 85 and 158 regions respectively. Here advanced means that the highway network development is ahead of the regional economic development; coordinated means highway network development is coordinated with the regional economic development; lagged means the highway network development is lagged behind the regional economic development. The spatial distribution of the three categories is different from the distribution of the three levels, but 92 PARs are in both the lagged category and the third level, mainly located in West China. For the lagged and underdeveloped PARs, the measures should be taken to optimize and upgrade the highway networks and meet the needs of the regional economic development.

Building Market-oriented Mechanisms for Ecological Compensation: Based on the Theory of "Transaction Costs"

The critical issue of eco-compensation is to build mechanisms for protecting environment and ecosys-tem by adjusting the economical relationship between the stakeholders who damaged and supported ecosystem services.Focusing on the definition,the purpose,the payment terms and the criterion of eco-compensation,many research papera have been published.Up to now,foreign researchers are more interested in the eco-com-pensation participated with local residents and running by market-based mechanism.Compared to the interna-tional progress,based on the traditional knowledge according to theory of public goods by Samuelson P and externality by Pigou C,domestic practice in natural resources and environment management is currently still in the government-led phase,and also,the hot pot of eco-compensation research is in financial transfer payments by central governments such as returning cropland to forest project,prohabiting over-grazing and natural forest protection.However,with the development of transportation and communication,the rise of the social concept for eco-logical payments,the growing ecological consumption such as eco-tourism,and the formation of institutional system of ecological property rights,the transaction costs of ecological services trading is gradually reducing and the eco-compensation market is getting matured.According to different types of ecosystems and ecosystem ser-vices,based on the transaction cost theory by Course R H in the economics of property rights,the feasibility and the patterns of ecosystem services trading were discussed for establishing a market-oriented compensation system.In this system,regional ecosystem was classified into three types according to the major services of the society-nature conservation areas.Meanwhile,the compensation manners were listed and grouped by three prin-cipals of developing the existing market for compensating the ecosystem output services,bundling compensation for the intangible services,and seeking diverse operations for ecosystems mainly providing non-material ser-vices.In the future research,attentions should be paid to case studies on land management and community par-ticipation.