Effect Mechanisms of Peasant Relocation Decision-making Behaviours in the Process of Rural Spatial Restructuring: The case of Hotan region, China

Abstract

Oasis agricultural areas are undergoing considerable spatiotemporal change, with growing rural population densities and land-use conflicts. Some rural settlements in oasis agricultural areas are too small and scattered, thus the provision of infrastructure has become prohibitively expensive. This paper, using the Hotan region of China (a typical oasis agricultural area) as a case study, aimed to explore the effectiveness and drivers of rural spatial restructuring in Hotan. With the application of entropy weight, principal component regression and logistic regression methods, we found that: (1) the restructuring effectiveness in Hotan unfolded sequentially, from the ecological space to the living and production space; (2) whether or not the rural space could be restructured was determined by the peasants’ willingness and abilities; (3) the factors influencing the restructuring ability in Hotan were, in descending order of importance: retail sales of consumer goods, local financial expenditures, primary industrial output, the net income, agricultural mechanisation dynamics, fixed-asset investments in rural areas; and (4) the peasants’ familial, professional and living environment characteristics had a significant impact on the peasants’ willingness to restructure. In general, professional characteristics, including whether the peasants participating in the land circulation and had ever been migrant workers, had positive impacts on the rural spatial restructuring. Household income and cultivated land impacts on restructuring willingness were complicated. Transformation from a positive to a negative impact occurred in different levels of indicators. Moreover, the peasants’ satisfaction with their living environment significantly affected the rural spatial restructuring.