Abstract:

The western region is the main agglomeration area of mineral resources in China. Quantitative evaluation of energy competitiveness and energy service function in the western region and concrete research of energy flows between energy cities and consumer cities are very important for regional coordinated development. In view of this,the urban flow intensity of the western provinces and the city energy flow gravity intensity between the energy city and the energy consumption city are measured through the urban flow and gravity model. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Shaanxi Province is the core region of western provinces with the highest intensity of urban flow and the strongest external service function to surrounding provinces and regions. Shaanxi Province also ranked the second in comprehensive energy competitiveness; (2) The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are the regions with strong comprehensive energy strength in western provinces and regions; (3) Yulin,Ordos and Xianyang have the highest energy supply potential and can be used as the main energy supply cities in China; (4) Heavy industrial cities with large energy demand should become the priority supply areas of energy cities,followed by municipality directly under the central government and central cities of China's urban agglomeration; (5) The three northeastern provinces,as well as Guangzhou,Haikou and some other areas had weak gravitation to energy cities because they are far away from the central energy source area. These places should pay more attention to the development of new energy to meet their own development needs.

Key words: energy, city flow, gravitational force, outgoing service function, western region