Function Evaluation and Coordination Analysis of Production–Living–Ecological Space Based on the Perspective of Type–Intensity–Connection: A Case Study of Suzhou, China

Abstract

The function evaluation and coordination analysis of production–living–ecological space is of great significance for guiding the high-quality development of territorial space. Considering the complexity of territorial space, this study constructed the evaluation index system of production–living–ecological spatial functions based on the perspective of “type–intensity–connection” and used multisource data to conduct empirical analysis in Suzhou, China, as an example. The results show that there were significant regional and urban-rural differences in the production–living–ecological comprehensive functional level of Suzhou, and it presents a composite spatial structure characterized by core-agglomeration, multipoint-dispersion, and centre-periphery. Among them, the functions of production and living spaces were concentrated with high values and have similar spatial structure, while the function of ecological space has low values and is distributed in contiguous areas around the production and living spaces. Overall, the coordination relationships of living–production space, ecological–living space and ecological–production space show significant positive, negative and negative correlations, respectively. However, in local space, the coordination relationship was composed of two types of leading relationships. This mainly reflects the great coordination between production space and living space, while the coordination between ecological space and other space is poor and needs to be improved. Therefore, it’s necessary to continuously improve the adequacy and balance of the functional quality of production–living–ecological space and increase organic connectivity and benign integration.