中文摘要：

沿江沿河地区的发展一直是国内外地理与规划学所关注的重点和热点。对于经济落后地区而言，沿江沿河的开发更是振兴经济的有效手段。本文从GDP增长率、产业结构变化等方面，分析了苏北运河沿河地区的经济发展状况，指出了构建苏北运河经济带的必要性和可行性，进而提出了构建苏北运河经济带的设想，从开发模式、重点产业和空间结构等方面进行了分析，这对苏北运河地区资源环境、社会、经济等的发展有着重要的指导意义。

英文摘要：

Taking the total GDP, GDP growth rate and changes in industrial structure as the main factors, the authors analyze the economic development level along the Great Canal in the North Jiangsu Province, and point out the necessities and feasibilities to form an economic belt along the Great Canal in the North Jiangsu Province, arguing that it is of significance to narrow the regional differences and achieve the common devel- opment by accelerating the development of areas along the Great Canal in the north of Jiangsu. The authors, first, hold that it is urgent in the north of Jiangsu to construct this economic belt, enhancing the development of economy and society, and bring about the idea of forming the economic belt. The belt is then expatiated from three aspects： development model, important industries and spatial structure. The authors think that some important towns along the Great Canal can be taken as the node, and the major traffic corridors, such as the Great Canal in the north of Jiangsu, the Beijing-Shanghai Highway, the Xu-Su-Huai Highway, could be regarded as the development axis, to create the economic belt along the Great Canal in North Jiangsu. And some industries should be considered as the major industries, such as eco-agriculture, forestry, animal hus- bandry and fishery, food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing, wood processing industry, machinery manu- facturing, cables and electrical equipment manufacturing, power generation industry, tourism, etc. Mean- while, three horizontal development axes can be nurtured through strengthening the linkages with other regions and cities, including Xuzhou-Lianyungang sub-development axis, Huai＇an-Yancheng sub-development axis and Yangzhou-Taizhou-Tongzhou sub-development axis.