Abstract: Taking the Pearl River and Xijiang River Economic Belt as research sample, using factor and cluster analysis, this study builds a vulnerability evaluation index system which evaluates the main indicators such as economic, social and resource-environment vulnerability of the city, in order to analyze and evaluate vulnerability level and spatial-temporal evolution of cities in Pearl River and Xijiang River Economic Belt from 2010 to 2013 comprehensively. The results show that: (1) as for vulnerability index, during the research period, Guangzhou ranked the first, followed by Zhaoqing, Foshan ranked the third; vulnerability situation of Chongzuo, Laibin and Baise did not look good; (2) The integral city vulnerability index of Pearl River and Xijiang River Economic Belt were below average. Proportion of cities with high vulnerability degree decreased significantly. The vulnerability index of cities showed an overall decreasing and then increasing trend. The vulnerability gap between the cities showed a trend of fluctuating downward and balanced development; (3) stage evolution of city vulnerability in Pearl River and Xijiang River Economic Belt was prominent, and exerts a clustering spatial stratified heterogeneity. Also, the vulnerability degree of regional central cities was relatively low, while resource-based cities showed a relatively high vulnerability degree.

Key words: the Pearl River and Xijiang River Economic Belt, city vulnerability, comprehensive evaluation, spatial-temporal evolution