Abstract
There have been many studies that have only focused on factors affecting the spatial distribution of rural settlements, without paying attention to their function and scale. China’s mountainous rural area has many problems, such as a fragile ecological environment, poor infrastructure and limited public service facilities. As a result, mountainous rural settlements demonstrate a disorderly and scattered layout. This research takes southern Shaanxi as its research area and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to analyze the field survey data, revealing the spatial format of rural settlements and its influencing factors. The research results show that: (1) The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized as falling into three types—agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The individual settlements are discrete, and the spatial structure of the settlement groups exhibits small-scale clustering in a large area. (2) The influencing factors of spatial structure are ranked thus—geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale. (3) The number of settlements in the study area is constantly decreasing, and their boundaries are gradually shrinking, showing randomly distributed characteristics. (4) A radius of 284.12 m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village to control the scope of settlement construction. The objective of the research is to classify the spatial structure and propose the most optimal spatial mode in mountainous rural areas.
Highlights
IntroductionChina is a primarily agricultural country, but its town planning is basically dictated by the needs of the primary industry in that area
To accurately depict the relationship between spatial structure and terrain in these As the factor with the highest weight, terrain visibly impacts the spatial structure of rural settlements, in Figure 11 we have shown generated schematic diagrams of the rural settlements, especially in these mountainous areas
The distribution of rural settlements and the population in mountainous areas are relatively scattered in terms of geography
Summary
China is a primarily agricultural country, but its town planning is basically dictated by the needs of the primary industry in that area. With the development of urbanization and the improvement of industrialization in China, the manpower needed to maintain comprehensive development has caused the population to rapidly inflow to urban areas from surrounding suburban and township areas. This phenomenon dramatically affects urban–rural duality, resulting in massive problems in rural areas, such as the hollowing out of villages, the polluting of natural environments, weakened agricultural activities, the enclosure and restriction of agricultural land, and so on [1,2].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
