Characterizing functionally integrated regions in the Central Yangtze River Megaregion from a city-network perspective

The past decade has witnessed a blossoming of megaregional plans throughout China. However, it is still unclear whether megaregions delineated in these plans are based on a functionally integrated foundation or imagined by the government. This study takes the Central Yangtze River Megaregion (CYRM)—a cross-jurisdictional megaregion planned as a leading regional integration platform in Central China—as a case to examine the mismatch between the governmentally designated regions and functionally integrated regions. Specifically, this research employs the community detection algorithm to identify functionally integrated regions within the CYRM based on producer services networks, then associate the formation of these network-based regions with territorial factors. The results show that the integration of identified first-tier functional regions is subject to the provincial administrative divisions; whereas, the locally planned regions comply with the second-tier functionally integrated regions spatially. Besides, the regression results indicate that the territorial factors are significantly associated with the above spatial patterns. Hence, the region-making practices initiated by the local governments rather than the central government, are more consistent with the conditions of regional economic development.