The central cities and metropolitan areas in the Yellow River Basin are gradually evolving into key areas and important drivers for the high-quality development of the basin. Based on the improved spatial gravity model

this paper analyzes the spatial and temporal characteristics of the economic linkages of the metropolitan areas of the three major central cities in the Yellow River Basin

and finds that the three major central cities of Jinan

Zhengzhou and Xi’an have strong radiation-driving effects on the cities in the metropolitan areas during 2010-2020

the radiation intensity to the cities in the metropolitan area is increasing year by year

and the relevant ranking is basically unchanged. Four time sections of 2010

2013

2017 and 2020 are selected to analyze the characteristics of their spatial pattern evolution

and it is found that the economic linkage networks of the three metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly complex

and a spatial agglomeration structure with the central city as the high-value radiation center is formed by and large. The Jinan metropolitan area has formed a spiderweb-like spatial structure with high-level economic linkages as its backbone. The Zhengzhou metropolitan area is gradually forming a spindle-shaped economic linkage network that radiates the entire region. The Xi’an metropolitan area is based on the integrated development of Xi’an-Xianyang and gradually establishes a radial network spatial structure with Weinan and Tongchuan. The strength of economic linkages among cities is characterized by cross-circle decay

and the economic linkages among Jinan

Zhengzhou and Xi’an metropolitan areas are relatively weak

while the economic linkages among central cities have not been broken. To this end

central cities and metropolitan areas need to promote the linked development of metropolitan areas with cooperation in transportation

industry

science and innovation

culture and education

tourism and ecology

and optimize the spatial pattern of the Yellow River Basin.