The Integrated Development and Regional Disparities of Urban Agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin, China

This study develops an evaluation system to assess the integration levels of the seven urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin. Based on the weighted comprehensive indicator-based evaluation and Dagum’s Gini decompositions, it evaluates the integration of these urban agglomerations as well as their regional disparities from 2010 to 2022. The results show the following: (1) During the study period, the overall integration level of these urban agglomerations exhibited a general upward trend, although significant gaps still exist, with a spatial pattern of “lower reaches > middle reaches > upper reaches”. Moreover, after 2019, the integration accelerated markedly, indicating that the Yellow River Strategy has positively influenced the integration of these urban agglomerations. (2) Significant differences exist between the urban agglomerations in different dimensions of integration, although the gap has shown a fluctuating but narrowing trend. In addition, the degree of integration across different dimensions has been increasing annually for all urban agglomerations, except for the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration. The focus of integration varies among these urban agglomerations due to their differing stages of development. (3) In terms of regional disparities, the overall Gini coefficient displayed a “reverse U-shaped” decline, suggesting that while the gap in integration between the urban agglomerations has been narrowing over time, imbalances persist. Inter-group differences are the primary source contributing to the overall disparities in the integration levels of the urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin.