Objective Against the background of ecological conservation and quality development of the Yellow River basin recognized as a major national strategy and of Gansu section of the River basin as the major part of land spatial optimization in Gansu province， we explore the intrinsic traits of the regional urban spaces from economic perspectives so as to advise on the approach to improve the overall development of the Gansu section of the Yellow River basin.Method Adopting gravity model， location quotient and geodetector， we explore the evolution of the urban economic spatial evolution in Gansu section of the Yellow River basin and its causes from the urban economic connection network， the structure of urban competitive edges， and the industrial cluster structure respectively.Conclusion （1） Both the networking level of regional economic connections and the level of urban competitive edges have been gradually promoted， and its structure has been transformed from monocentric cluster to polycentric cluster； the first industrial cluster has undergone a transformation from global structure to perforated one， and the second industrial cluster ends up a perforated structure which is increasingly strengthened， and the third industrial cluster has undergone an evolution process from perforated structure to local and then to perforated one. （2） Urban competitive edges of the Gansu section of the River basin are closely related to local governments’ revenues， and the higher the corresponding industrial production values， the more clustered the industrial developments； moreover， affected by ecological conservation and supply side reform， it has begun a journey of deindustrialization and industrial transformation， and fixed-asset investment in and government fiscal expenditure on the second industry will decrease in its percentage.