Abstract:

Urban agglomerations represent the product of advanced new urbanization, serving as a crucial driver of China’s modernization and playing a key role in national and regional development. With the continuous acceleration of urbanization, urban agglomerations commonly face prominent challenges such as the degradation of ecosystem functions, excessive consumption of natural resources, and imbalances in social and economic development. As the advanced form and updated manifestation of coordinated information-based city growth, smart cities can flexibly utilize various emerging intelligent technologies and resource elements in the fields of environmental protection, industry, commerce, and others. Consequently, the development of smart cities and smart urban agglomerations has become an effective strategy for optimizing energy efficiency and boosting the urban economy. Within the smart urban agglomeration development framework, technological innovation acts as the primary driver for transformation, ecological construction forms the core requirement for sustainable development, and economic growth represents the shared objective of coordinated advancement. Under globalization, smart urban agglomerations are confronted with the dual challenges of economic competition pressure and environmental protection goals. Innovation, ecology and economy have become the core elements to break through the development bottlenecks of urban agglomerations. The integrated development of innovation, ecology and economy has become a vital component in advancing smart urban agglomeration construction. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is an important intersection of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The three provinces and one direct-controlled municipality have been continuously promoting the construction of a new type of smart urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta, which plays a pivotal role in the national modernization strategy. Therefore, conducting an assessment of the integration effects of innovation, ecology and economy in the Yangtze River Delta smart urban agglomeration and exploring optimization approaches for the tripartite system's collaborative mechanism are of great practical significance for promoting the regional integration and sustainable development. Current research on innovation, ecology and economy predominantly focuses on the interaction relationships among sub-systems in the innovation-ecological-economic system. Only a few studies examined the coordinated development of the ternary system within a specific region, and there are relatively few in-depth analyses of the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the coordinated development capacity. Furthermore, existing literature is largely macro-level research at the provincial scale or above. Analysis of the co-evolution of urban agglomerations from the perspective of smart city construction needs to be enriched. Hence, this paper first constructed an evaluation system for the coordinated development of the innovation-ecology-economic system of the smart urban agglomeration, enriching the research on the city development quality. Secondly, taking 2013 to 2021 as the sample period, this paper analyzed the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the coordinated development capacity of the ternary system, explored the development process, regional differences and spatial correlation trends of the coordinated capacity of the urban agglomeration, and comprehensively examined the development trend of regional integration. Finally, utilizing the obstacle degree model, the obstructive factors of urban development were analyzed to identify the shortcomings and deficiencies in urban development, providing theoretical support for the high-quality development. The main research conclusions of this paper are as follows: 1) The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has achieved leapfrog development in terms of innovation, ecology, economy, and related areas, exhibiting distinct development trends and spatial differentiation characteristics. In terms of innovation, the development level of urban agglomerations has steadily improved, and a development pattern has formed in which core cities radiate to and drive the surrounding areas. However, there is still room for improvement in overall innovation strength. In ecology, the development status of 34 cities shows a fluctuating upward trend, with an overall good level, and the differences between the north and the south are gradually emerging. In the economy, only four cities have seen a slight decline in their economic levels, while the economic levels of the rest of the cities have significantly improved, and the disparity between the east and the west has gradually deepened. 2) The overall coupling degree of the ternary system within urban agglomerations has long remained in a deep-running-in stage, with a fluctuating upward trajectory that brings it on the verge of reaching a high-level coupling state. Over the observation period, the coupling coordination degree of the ternary system has gradually climbed from 0.321 to 0.392, reflecting a steady improvement in the synergistic interaction among its components. Meanwhile, the coefficient of variation has consistently hovered around 0.3, indicating that regional internal differences have maintained a stable pattern without drastic fluctuations. Throughout this process, the coupling coordination degree has shown remarkable resilience, with no significant downturns or erratic swings observed, which underscores the robustness of the system's evolutionary trend. Given this positive momentum, the coordinated development capacity of the ternary system is well-positioned to transition into a more optimal state in the near term, laying a solid foundation for more integrated and efficient operation of urban agglomerations. 3) The differences in synergy among cities first narrowed and then increased, with an overall convergence. The Gini coefficient of the coupling coordination degree ranges from 0.140 to 0.157, with an overall decrease of 0.011. The intra-provincial differences in the coupling coordination degree between Jiangsu and Anhui have narrowed, while the intra-provincial differences in Zhejiang remain unchanged. Inter-provincial differences are the main source of the differences in the integrated development. The differences between Shanghai and other three provinces are obvious. In addition, the Moran Index of coupling coordination degree ranges from 0.242 to 0.265, indicating that there is a relatively low spatial correlation in the capacity for coordinated urban development. 4) The main obstacles to the synergy of the innovation system are the investment in scientific and technological funds, the input of scientific and technological personnel, the number of books held in public libraries, and the achievements of patent research and development. The key factors hindering the coordinated development of the ecology system are environmental protection investment and the total amount of water resources. General budgetary revenue, trade dependence and regional GDP are common factors that restrict the coordinated development of the economic system. Each city should tailor future development policies to its specific circumstances, fostering the coordinated development of all three systems to advance regional integration goals. This research provides theoretical support for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and also offers valuable insights for the research on the sustainable development of smart urban agglomerations.

Key words: innovation-ecology-economy, co-evolution, obstacle factors, smart urban agglomerations

摘要：

推动创新、生态与经济系统的协同发展是长三角智慧城市群实现高质量可持续发展的核心议题。构建了创新-生态-经济系统协同发展的评价指标体系，运用耦合协调模型等方法，系统揭示了2013－2021年长三角城市群该复合系统协同水平的时空演化格局、分异特征及其关键障碍因素。结果表明，1）长三角城市群在创新、生态、经济等方面实现了跨越式发展，并呈现出不同的发展趋势和空间分异特征。2）城市群创新-生态-经济系统耦合能力波动提升且将达到高水平阶段，但耦合协调度仅为0.392，处于轻度失调状态。3）耦合协调度的基尼系数总体下降0.011，表明城市间协同性差异整体趋同；省内差异保持稳定或有缩小，上海与江、浙、皖间差异明显；莫兰指数介于0.242－0.265，存在强度不高的空间相关性。4）创新系统协同的主要障碍因素为科技经费投入、科技人员投入、公共图书馆藏书量和专利研发成果；阻碍生态系统协同发展的关键因素是环保投资与水资源总量；一般预算内收入、贸易依存度和地区生产总值是限制经济系统协同发展的共同因子。该研究为长三角城市群一体化发展提供了理论支持，也为智慧城市群可持续发展研究提供了有益思考。

关键词: 创新-生态-经济, 协同演化, 障碍因素, 智慧城市群