The Spatial Relationship Between Urban–Rural Integration and Economic Development: A Case Study of Urban Agglomeration in the Yellow River Basin

Urban–rural integration (URI) is important for achieving rural revitalization and sustainable development. Currently, there is a lack of research on URI in prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin Urban Agglomerations (YRBUAs), and the spatial relationship between URI and economic development is not clear. This paper evaluates the URI index of the YRBUA from 2010 to 2022, and applies research methods such as an exploratory data analysis, spatial variation function, coupling coordination degree, and gray correlation analysis to explore the spatial relationship between URI and economic development. The study found the following: (1) The integration level is highest in the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration and lowest in the Ningxia Along the Yellow River Urban Agglomeration. The rank structure of the URI index within the city cluster is dominated by a single core. (2) The URI index roughly shows the spatial distribution characteristics of high in the east and low in the west. (3) The level of URI and economic development are spatially positively correlated. The high-value agglomeration areas of both are mainly distributed in Shandong Peninsula. (4) The high-value areas of coupling coordination and gray correlation degree are distributed in Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration.