Abstract

Regional development plays a vital role in the modernization of all countries, and is of great significance in the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the construction of harmonious society in China. In the next 30 to 50 years, global climate change and economic globalization will have increasingly substantial influence on regional development in China and regional response and reaction will be an integrated choice to adapt to the restriction of carbon emission reduction and the supporting conditions of “two types of resources and two markets”. At that time, the population of China will be over 1.5 billion, the 70% of which will live in urban areas. As a result, the land demand of food security, ecological security and urbanization will continue to increase, and urbanization and regional development will be confronted with a core task of continuously adjusting and restructuring the interactive relationship between human and the natural system. Under the combined influence of state power and market force, the spatial agglomeration and dispersion processes of population and industries will be intensified significantly, and the spatial pattern of regional development based on the division of territorial function will be formed. Regional development will have increasingly enriched contents and multiple objectives. The interaction between regions at different spatial scales will tend to be diversified.