Coordinated development of rural habitat in China: A study of measurement, spatio-temporal evolution and convergence

Abstract

Rural revitalization is inseparable from the construction of human habitat, the coordinated development of rural culture and physical environment profoundly affects the quality of the habitat environment, and the improvement of the habitat environment requires a “soft and hard balance”. Previous studies have focused more on the overall quality of rural habitat and neglected the coordination of habitat construction. The contribution of our study is the construction of an evaluation index system for the China Rural Habitat Coordinated Degree (CRHCD). The main research results show that the level of soft and hard environment of China's rural habitat is growing, but the construction of soft environment is a shortcoming. CRHCD leaps from nearly dysfunctional (0.440) to barely coordinated (0.538), and is in a transitional stage with stable spatial structure, showing the trend of “from point to line, from line to surface”, and gradually developing from coastal to inland. Spatial convergence analysis shows that CRHCD converges fastest in the eastern region, while the northeastern region shows dispersion characteristics. Our results provide a theoretical basis and policy recommendations for the systematic coordination and regional balanced development of rural habitat in China.