Evolution and Influencing Factors of Manufacturing Production Space in the Pearl River Delta—Based on the Perspective of Global City-Region

Abstract

Evolution and influencing factors of manufacturing production spaces in the global city regions of China are diverse from the West, attracting attention to accurately identify and analyze the real and continuous distribution of manufacturing production spaces on the basis of the actual situation of the region. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that the production spaces should be intensive and efficient, but the existing studies focus less attention on the manufacturing entity spaces in city regions. Taking the Pearl River Delta as an instance, combined with the POI data of manufacturing enterprises, this study interprets the spatial information of manufacturing production spaces in 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017 by means of high-resolution remote sensing images. Using various models to quantitatively explore the distribution pattern and evolution characteristics of manufacturing production spaces in the Pearl River Delta in dissimilar periods, and then providing policy guidance for the accurate planning and regulation of manufacturing production spaces in China’s global city regions, on the basis of comparing the evolution mechanism of manufacturing space in Western countries’ global city regions. The results show that: Under the coupling effect of the stage of time series and the heterogeneity of spatial distribution, the manufacturing production spaces in the Pearl River Delta has evolved from the scattered distribution of the core area to the complex and diversified spatial pattern. The hot spots of manufacturing production space expansion in distinct stages also exhibit stage differences. At the current stage, the factors of globalization, technological innovation and policy are becoming increasingly significant. The evolution characteristics of manufacturing production spaces in global city regions in China and Western countries are dissimilar, but the driving factors are similar, which involves the level of urbanization and industrialization, the local government-level infrastructure investment, etc. Instead of simply promoting or restraining the optimization control of manufacturing production spaces, the local governments conduct precise regulation in line with the actual space distribution and development mechanism of manufacturing production spaces in diverse cities. In this process, we can learn from but not copy the experience of the Western countries.