Research on the Priority of County-Level Territorial Space Consolidation: Form–Flow Synthesis Analysis Based on Principal Component Analysis

The scientific identification of the priority of territorial space consolidation in counties is a key prerequisite for clarifying the direction of regional improvement and implementing differentiated spatial governance strategies. This paper breaks through the traditional evaluation paradigm of separating “form” and “flow”, and for the first time innovatively integrates the theory of “form–flow synthesis” with the method of principal component analysis. This paper takes Deqing County as the empirical study area. Through principal component analysis, 19 initial indicators were dimensionally reduced into a “flow–form” two-dimensional space with clear geographical significance. Then, the natural discontinuity method was used to classify it into nine types of “flow–form” combination types, and the 13 towns of Deqing County were projected onto the “flow–form” two-dimensional coordinates, thereby objectively revealing the matching/mismatch relationship between the “flow” and “form” in space. The results show that the current territorial space of Deqing County presents characteristics of “overall balance but local imbalance”. This paper also discusses the consolidation priority strategy based on the “flow–form” matching results.