JiSMART2021—024: The Variation of Urbanization Level of Counties in the Severely Affected Area before and after Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

Geological disasters are inevitable in the process of human urbanization. Meanwhile, it brings both challenges and opportunities to the development of urbanization. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake had dramatically impacted on the social and economic development of Sichuan and even the whole China. Whether and how the urbanization level were affected by the Wenchuan earthquake had become a hot issue attracted more attentions from scholars, policy makers and etc. The urbanization development of the earthquake in the most affected area had become a key issue to the sustainable development after the Wenchuan earthquake. The purpose of this paper is to research the urbanization level of the ten severely affected counties from three dimensions including population, economy and space before and after the earthquake. The results showed that there was an increasing trend of population-economy-space urbanization level and U-shaped of populationeconomy-space urbanization level results were found in the most severely affected counties. The research could provide a scientific basis for policy makers to make their decisions.