Spatiotemporal analysis and driving force of high quality development of small towns in Guangxi, China

The high-quality development of small towns in Guangxi is crucial for regional economic balance and sustainable development. This study establishes a comprehensive evaluation index system based on the new development philosophy (innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing) and introduces a comparative perspective between small towns and cities to avoid homogenized analysis. Using panel data from 70 small towns and 14 prefecture-level cities in Guangxi (2005-2022), we employed the Entropy Weight-TOPSIS method to measure development levels, the Dagum Gini coefficient to analyze regional disparities, and an optimized Geographic Detector model to explore driving factors. Additionally, a dedicated comparative analysis was conducted to examine differences in economic growth, industrial structure, public services, ecological environment, and innovation investment between small towns and cities.The findings are as follows:1.Guangxi's small towns showed steady high-quality development with distinct spatiotemporal patterns and were categorized into five types: comprehensive leading, core backbone, catch-up potential, opportunity development, and low-growth.2.Regional disparities in small towns are narrowing but remain significant, especially between the western and southern economic zones.3.Compared with cities, small towns lagged in economic growth, industrial upgrading, innovation investment, and public services but had 30.54% higher carbon emission intensity, reflecting reliance on traditional high-energy industries.4.Economic factors were the primary drivers of small towns' development, with ecological factors growing in importance; interactions between factors had a stronger impact than individual factors.5.This research highlights small towns' unique role as a link between urban and rural areas through urban-rural comparison, providing targeted insights for balanced and sustainable development policies.