THE STUDY ON THE FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF VALLEY-CITIES IN THE WESTERN CHINA
采用尼尔森方法和多变量法将中国西部河谷城市分为两大类八小类，发现62%为综合性城市，专业化城市多为近五十年发展的工业城市，并分析了各类城市的功能特征与问题。
The paper applies H.J.Nelson's method and multi-variables method to classify the Valley-Cities in the western China into two general classes and eight detailed classes. It is evident that 62% Valley-cities belongs to comprehensive city and the most of the specializing Valley-cities are industrialized cities which have been developed in recent fifty years after through analyzing the result of functional classification of the Valley-cities. The valley-urban function has made great progress that the function has changed from simple to complex and comprehensive in the past fifty years. There are rich in natural resources, especially minerals in the western China. Because of exploring lots of natural resources, for example mineral resources, the kind of Valley-cities whose main functions are excavating industry and smelting industry have been formed and developed, such as Baiyin、Yumen、Qingtongxia、 Jiayuguan、Liupanshui、Tongchuan、Wuhai、Panzhihua etc.. This is a main reason of the appearance of many new cities in the western China. There are two types of comprehensive Valley-cities in the western China,one is regional center,such as Chongqing、Chengdou、Xian、Lanzhou etc.,the other is local center to which the most of comprehensive Valley-cities belong. According to leading industry and functional intensity we can divided comprehensive Valley-cities into four types:the first type is excavating industry and smelting industry and engineering industry comprehensive Valley-cities constituting 20.4% of all comprehensive Valley-cities,the second is transportation and postal and telecommunications services comprehensive Valley-cities constituting 20.4% of them,the third is light industry and commerce and catering trade comprehensive Valley-cities constituting 46.9% of them,and the forth is building trade comprehensive Valley-cities constituting 12.2 % of them. The third type of comprehensive Valley-cities holds 29.1% of all western Valley-cities. The smaller urban scale and lower urban function of the most of comprehensive Valley-cities have unfit to the development of the western China. Because of the limitation of leading industry and urban industrial system they are getting more and more serious and so clearer that are urban pollution, urban transportation, urban land use, and industrial structure etc. We must pay more attention to the above problems of this kind of city in the western China in their sustainable development.