Identification and Optimization of the Spatial Structure of Urban and Rural Settlements from a Hierarchical Network Perspective

Qingqing Ye,Jiwei Li,Xuesong Kong,Shaokai Zhang

doi:10.3390/land10111177

Abstract

China has entered a new era of comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization and integrated urban–rural development. The identification and optimization of the spatial structure of urban and rural settlements are of great significance to the realization of rural revitalization and integrated urban–rural development. This study proposes a method framework for identifying and optimizing the spatial structure of urban and rural settlements from a hierarchical network perspective. This framework includes three parts—namely, the identification, analysis, and optimization of the hierarchical network structure of these settlements. The identification of this structure is the foundation of this study. To realize the identification, for each settlement, this study finds and retains its strongest interaction with other settlements which have a stronger capacity for development. This study used Hua County in Henan, China, as an example to verify the method framework. Results showed that the spatial structure of the urban and rural settlements in Hua County identified in this study was complete and continuous, with significant hierarchical and community characteristics. Based on this, a five-level optimization system of these settlements was constructed. This study expands the method used to study the spatial structure of urban and rural settlements from the network perspective and has a theoretical and practical significance for the optimization of the spatial structure of these settlements.

Highlights

In China, problems concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers have restricted the country’s economic and social development for decades [1,2]
The first part is the basis of this study, where the spatial interaction network of these settlements is first constructed based on the gravity model; the hierarchical network structure of urban and rural settlements is identified by comprehensively considering the capacity for development and spatial interaction network of these settlements
Based on the capacity for development of settlements and the time cost data (Figure 4b), a spatial interaction network of urban and rural settlements in Hua County was constructed based on the gravity model (Figure 4c)

Summary

Introduction

In China, problems concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers have restricted the country’s economic and social development for decades [1,2]. Scattered and disorderly layouts with hollowed villages have become common phenomena in rural settlements in China [6,7,8,9,10]. This has further hindered the equalization of basic public service infrastructure between urban and rural areas. To solve these problems, the Chinese government has introduced and implemented some strategic measures such as new rural construction, balanced urban and rural development, and new urbanization [11,12]. In 2018, China began to enter a new era of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and integrated urban–rural development

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion