Scattered rural settlements and development of Mountainous Regions in Western Sichuan, China

Abstract

Making rural settlements of Mountainous Regions in Western Sichuan as the study objects and using symbolic statistical methods, then combining the case study of Daofu County, the paper analyzes the negative impact of the scattered rural settlements on infrastructure construction, farmers’ income increase and mountain ecological reconstruction in mountainous regions of western Sichuan. The results indicate that economic density is positively related to both rural settlements density (R 2=0.73) and rural population density (R 2=0.77), and it is the same for relationship between towns density and rural settlements density (R 2=0.88) and between towns density and economic density (R 2=0.71), and the scattered distribution pattern of the rural settlements and shortage of economic centers is a major factor to the lagged socioeconomic development. On the eco-economic zoning to Daofu County, the paper indicates the spatial distribution model and the industrial development model of the rural settlements need to be changed, and rural population should be concentrated in larger rural settlements with development of off-farm industries while infrastructure construction is to reinforced.