Growth Motivation of Urban Agglomerations in Multiscale Spatial Structures from the Perspective of Synergy Theory

Abstract

The sustainability of urban agglomerations is crucial to regional development worldwide, and the growth motivation of multiscale spatial structures is a worthy scientific problem in urban agglomerations. This study takes the urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta as a case study to explore the growth motivation of multiscale spatial structures based on synergy theory. The growth of urban agglomerations mainly involves four stages: central city, urban communities, metropolitan area and urban agglomeration, each experiencing fluctuations in development factors during input, aggregation, diffusion and upgrading. At the same time, the upgrading of spatial synergistic relationships with the growth of urban agglomerations can be categorised into four types: internal, point-to-point, circle-to-circle and multicircle synergies. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in identifying that the upgrading of spatial synergistic relationships and the changes in development factor fluctuations collectively drive the growth motivation for urban agglomerations. These findings will help advance the academic research on spatial structure and urban planning policy in practice.