Spatial Effect of Mineral Resources Exploitation on Urbanization in Tarim River Basin

In arid and semi-arid areas, with abundant mineral resources, the development of mineral resources significantly affects the growth of cities, the formation of the key features of a regional urban system, and the development of a regional spatial pattern of urbanization. However, few discussions were conducted on the effect of mineral resources exploitation on urbanization in arid and semi-arid areas.

The Tarim River Basin, located in Xinjiang, covers five prefectures and autonomous prefectures. Since 1978, the search for mineral resources in the Tarim River Basin has been intensified. Minerals resource industries and the relevant economic activities became the dominant factor influencing spatial structure evolution of the urbanization in this area.

Therefore, LI Xuemei et al. investigated the spatial impacts of mineral resources excavation and processing on comprehensive level of urbanization in the Tarim River Basin for the years of 2000, 2006 and 2008 by using the spatial autocorrelation method and the spatial computation model.

The results showed that there was a spatial correlation of the development of mineral resources industry and the comprehensive level of urbanization in 2006 and 2008, with the spatial concentration trend rising significantly in 2006 and decreasing in 2008. The patterns of local spatial concentration of mineral resources industry and of the comprehensive level of urbanization were relatively stable, and the two patterns showed signs of spatial correlationship. The higher was the degree of the concentration of mineral resources industry, the stronger was its impact on the spatial clustering of urbanization.

In 2000, mineral resources excavation and processing had a significant positive impact on the comprehensive level of urbanization in the region but not in its adjacent regions. However, in 2008, mineral resources excavation and processing significantly raised the comprehensive level of urbanization not only in the region but also in its neighboring regions.

This research demonstrates that the development of mineral resources industry can strongly affect the trends and spatial patterns of urbanization. The result was published in Chinese Geographical Science on October 2012, 22(5): 590-601.