Settlement Land Use Research Articles

Analisis Kelayakan Pemukiman Menggunakan Metode Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Kecamatan Kuta Baro, Kabupaten Aceh Besar

The use of land resources for settlements is generally determined by the capability of the land or the appropriateness of the land. Residential area planning must consider the risk of a disaster because it will have an impact on material and physical losses. Administratively, the research area is located in the north of Kuta Baro Sub-District, Aceh Besar District, Aceh Province with a research area of about 12 km2. The research location which is close to the Seulawah Agam volcano will cause potential impacts of disasters such as volcanic eruption and landslide. The purpose of analyzing settlement land use using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in this study is to determine and analyze the feasibility of residential land at the research location. The parameters used in the land use analysis consist of 5 parameters including rock lithology, geomorphological conditions, slope, soil type, and rainfall. The results obtained in this study were 3 (three) classes of land use feasibility zones, namely the feasible zone, the less feasible zone, and the unfeasible zone. Analysis of land use suitability based on the feasible zone for settlements in Kuta Baro District with lowland geomorphology (0 - 8% slope level), rock lithology in the form of silt deposits, low rainfall, and alluvium soil types which have a very low level of erosion.

Regional Soil Nutrient Balances for Cropland in 1920s Catalonia, Spain

AbstractUnderstanding the replacement of soil nutrients removed by harvests makes it possible to understand the influence of humans on long-term soil fertility. This article calculates nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium balances for cropland in 1920 for three agroecoregions distinguished by particular historical settlement patterns, land use, geography, and climatic characteristics in Catalonia, Spain. The analysis assesses and compares the regional potential for farmers to have returned the nutrients extracted from croplands at a time of transition, when only a few synthetic fertilizers were yet available. From sustainability science, the article borrows a methodology to reconstruct soil nutrient balances in historical agroecosystems from available regional historical sources. The soil balances indicate that nutrient extractions were balanced with the additions in Catalonia’s wetter Pyrenees and eastern regions, but were in deficit in the arid western regions, where less livestock manure was available. In Barcelona province, farmers made considerable use of synthetic fertilizers already in 1920. Such fertilizers were mainly intended to supplement phosphorus in the eastern region, suggesting that they played an important role there too, where there was not enough manure.

Flash flood risk assessment using geospatial technology in Shewa Robit town, Ethiopia

Flash flood is an extreme flooding event which is quick, short-lived, hazardous phenomena having negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. Flood risk management is essential to reduce the effects of flood on human lives and livelihoods. The main goals of this research were flash flood risk analysis and risk quantification in terms of land use land cover using geo-spatial technology in Shewa Robit town. In the present study, elevation, slope, drainage density, distance from river, NDVI, land use land cover, topographic wetness index and curvature were used as parameters determining flash flood risk. To realize these research objectives, all these data were reclassified in to five classes and different weights for each of them was assigned using analytic hierarchy process. Weighted Sum Overlay (WSO) analyses of ARC GIS software was employed to produce flood vulnerability map. Then, the accuracy of generated flood risk map was validated using historical flood data. According to the result, about 3.08%, 14.62% and 20.66% of Shewa Robit town are at a very high, high and moderate flash flood risk, respectively. In addition to this, flood risk was also quantified in terms of land use land cover. The result indicates that the settlement land use is the most vulnerable with an estimated area of 12.01 ha, 99.57 ha and 174.16 ha in very high, high and moderate risk classes. The outcome of the study will be applicable in flood hazard management and mitigation strategies.

Evolution of rural settlements in the Tongzhou District of Beijing under the new-type urbanization policies

In 2014, China launched its latest urbanization strategy, the National New-type Urbanization Plan, to promote scientific and reasonable urbanization modes. China's new-type urbanization policy not only affects urban development, but will also have significant impacts on the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers as well as on the use modes of rural settlements. A thorough analysis of the impacts of new-type urbanization policies on the pattern evolution of rural settlements is therefore critical for developing and proposing a science-based layout scheme of rural settlements and for guiding the development and evolution of rural settlements in a reasonable manner. In this paper, we use the Tongzhou District of Beijing, one of China's new-type urbanization pilot areas, as an example. Applying the CLUE-S model to analyze the impacts of new-type urbanization policies, we simulate the potential influences of the implementation of these policies on the pattern evolution of rural settlements. Based on the results, the implementation of new-type urbanization policies has significant influences on both urban and rural population migration, mainly through the reform of the household registration system. The results further suggest that these policies have significant impacts on the land use scale as well as on the spatial patterns of rural settlements. By 2030, under the scenario of new-type urbanization, the land use scale of rural settlements in Tongzhou District would increase by 0.79% compared with that under the scenario of conventional urbanization. In terms of spatial distribution under new-type urbanization, land use of rural settlements would mainly compete with that of urban land and grassland. We conclude that the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Tongzhou District can be improved and better regulated via reasonable planning.

Normative legal regulation of land relations of Kuban Cossacks in the XIX century

The subject of this research is the land relations of Kuban Cossacks viewed through the prism of normative legal institutionalization. Special attention is given to the problem of land use of kuren and stanitsa farm settlements. The author examines the peculiarities of land use of Black Sea and Line Cossacks, questions of population and development of Kuban in the XIX century. Methodological platform is comprised of the general scientific principles of historicism, objectivity, alternativeness and systematicity, which gives a comprehensive perspective upon the problem of land use of Cossack settlements and reconstructs a holistic historical picture of research. Self-containment of land relations of Kuban Cossacks remained a phenomenon of local history for a long time, and is yet to be examined in modern Russian historiography. The following conclusions were made: 1) free use of land in Kuban in the late XVIII – early XIX centuries was gradually replaced by more restrictive measures for normative regulation of land relations; 2) practice of permissive type of legal regulation developed into the replotting system of land distribution in Kuban Cossack Army chronologically define reallotment of land; 3) initial restrictions in multiple Cossack communities with regards to  the use of wild lands spread onto the use of any land, and crop lands became the first category in allocation of lands in Kuban.

Pollution Load Capacity Analysis of BOD, COD, and TSS in Karang Mumus River, Samarinda

The Rivers in Indonesia often accommodate pollution from all community activities. This happened due to a large number of people who use watersheds for living. One of those rivers is the Karang Mumus River in Samarinda City, East Kalimantan. This study aims to analyze the capacity of the Karang Mumus River pollution load in segments 2, 3 and 4. The analysis model used in this study was the QUAL2Kw and ArcGIS models. The former used to calculate the capacity of river pollution and the latter used to determine land use. The results of the QUAL2Kw Model analysis shown that the capacity of the BOD was exceeded in all segments, COD was exceeded in all segments except segment 3. The entire segment had an allocation of sectoral pollution load originated from domestic activities. This study concluded that the dominant land use of settlements was one of the main causes of this problem.

Modeling And Spatial Analysis Of Change Settlement And Fair Market Land Price Using Markov Chain Model In Banyumanik District

Banyumanik District is located on the outskirts of Semarang with very rapid development. Indicated with the many changes in land that occur, due to the construction of settlements and other physical buildings continues to increase. Changes in land use will also be followed by changes in market land prices. These changes will continue in line with the increasing number and activities of the population in carrying out economic, social and cultural life. Most of the studies was conducted to analyze changes in future land use are based on the use of a model. Land use modeling changes is a method or approach that can be used to understand the causes and effects of these dynamic changes. The Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network and Markov Chain methods are used in this study to determine which locations or areas of land use are vacant land and agriculture has the potential to change into settlements and test the predictive ability that will be produced by the model. The driving factor for land use change as an input model consists of distance to the road, distance to the area experiencing changes in land use, slope, elevation and fair market land prices. This study aims to (1) predict settlement and its changes in Banyumanik District using High Resolution Satellite Image in 2011-2019, (2) build a model of settlement land use change with the Markov Chain methods and (3) projection of Banyumanik District land use in 2028.

Influence of Settlement Type and Land Use on Public Attitudes towards Spotted Hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Zimbabwe

Perceptions of people towards the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) outside protected areas are central to the management programmes targeted at conserving large carnivores. We conducted interviews using a questionnaire to assess the attitudes and perceptions of people (n = 355) towards the spotted hyaena in western Zimbabwe from October 2014 to February 2015. The study area was split into Environmental Conservation Areas (ECAs) and communal areas based on their distance from the protected area (Fuller Forest) boundary. People's perceptions and attitudes were analysed using multinomial logistic regression. Top model ranking showed that the distance from protected area, livelihood source, and extent of livestock killed by spotted hyaenas had an influence on the perceptions of villagers about the species. Furthermore, it was noted that incentives may play a pivotal role in moderating the human–spotted hyaena conflict. It is recommended that a modified incentive-driven ECA model should be embraced in communal areas to promote and encourage positive attitudes towards the spotted hyaena and other wildlife.

Optimization of settlement land use through carbon footprint approach in The North Balikpapan

Limited land in the downtown area as well as the increasing amount of new activities centre causes residential development leads to North Balikpapan. This area is an urban fringe with vast protected forests as buffer zone and catchment area for the city and surrounding area. Land conversion in this area will increase hazard risk of inundation, water quality decrease and increased CO2 emissions. Therefore, development should be maintained environmental stability. One of the rights applicated approach is carbon footprint that is capable to measure the balance between production and absorption needs of CO2 emissions. To find the optimal land allocation, we used carbon footprint calculation from the household activities, identify the factors of settlement growth, and use Linear Programming analysis. Analysis’ results show that settlement activities in North Balikpapan produce 108.362,4 tCO2/year or equivalent with 618,50 Ha green space. Meanwhile, the development of settlement in North Balikpapan is affected by social demographic, developer initiative, environmental condition, public facilities availability, economical structure, and policy factors. According to those factors, optimal allocation of settlement area in North Balikpapan is only about 4,510.01 Ha. With that condition, it still able to absorb CO2 emissions from inside or outside the area around 2.751 tCO2/year.

Urban Green Spaces and Their Need in Cities of Rapidly Urbanizing India: A Review

Urbanization offers several opportunities for the growth of economic, social, and technology sectors, offering benefits to society in terms of better living and healthcare facilities, as well as employment opportunities. However, some major downsides of urbanization are overcrowding and environmental degradation. In order to realize sustainable and environmentally friendly urbanization, there is an urgent need for comprehensive land use planning and of urban settlements by giving due consideration to create and sustain urban green spaces (UGS) such as parks, gardens, roadside vegetation, etc. UGS play a vital role in reducing air pollution, mitigating climate change, and providing various ecosystem services. UGS are being deteriorated substantially due to booming urbanization in developing countries such as India. This review is focused on highlighting the many challenges in creating and maintaining UGS in the Indian context. It is a compilation of available reports on problems linked with poor land use and/or planning of urban settlements. The challenges associated with the management and maintenance of UGS are described. The poor and irregular watering of many existing UGS is one of the major issues among several others requiring immediate attention to resolve the problem of deteriorating UGS in some cities of India. As the groundwater resources are rapidly depleting because of ever increasing water demand, UGS are being dispensed with poor and irregular watering resulting in their deterioration. A list of possible solutions and prospects of UGS in cities aiming to become smart cities soon are discussed in this review. Efficient wastewater treatment and a non-potable reuse system are possible solutions for better prospects of UGS, and therefore, optimism of better cities with low to null urban heat island effect.

Farmers' Rural-To-Urban Migration, Influencing Factors and Development Framework: A Case Study of Sihe Village of Gansu, China.

Farmers are the major participants in rural development process and their willingness to settle in urban areas directly affects the implementation of rural revitalization strategy. Based on Ostrom’s institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework, we analyzed farmers’ willingness to settle in urban areas and its influencing factors by binary Logistic regression and cluster analysis of survey data of 190 rural households in Sihe village of Gansu Province of China. The results show that: (1) In Sihe village, farmers’ willingness to settle in urban areas was low in general and influenced by their neighbors’ decisions or behaviors. Households willing and unwilling to migrate to urban areas both presented significant spatial agglomeration. (2) The factors influencing farmers’ willingness to settle in urban areas were analyzed from six aspects: individual characteristics, family characteristics, residence characteristics, cognitive characteristics, institutions, and constraints. The main influencing factors were found to be age, occupation, number of non-agricultural workers in the family, household cultivated land area, annual household income, house building materials, degree of satisfaction with social pension, homestead and contracted land subsidies, income constraints, and other constraints. (3) Individual heterogeneity and difference in economic basis determined the difference in farmers’ willingness to settle in urban areas. Institutions and constraints played different roles in the migration willingness of different groups of farmers (Note: More details on the sample as well as further interpretation and discussion of the surveys are available in the associated research article (“Village-Scale Livelihood Change and the Response of Rural Settlement Land Use: Sihe Village of Tongwei County in Mid-Gansu Loess Hilly Region as an Example” (Ma, L.B.; Liu, S.C.; Niu, Y.W.; Chen, M.M., 2018)).

Village-Scale Livelihood Change and the Response of Rural Settlement Land Use: Sihe Village of Tongwei County in Mid-Gansu Loess Hilly Region as an Example.

Rural livelihood change has great influence on the scale, structure, and morphology of rural settlement land use, thus bringing new challenges to rural revitalization and settlement reconstruction. Sihe village of Tongwei County in mid-Gansu loess hilly region (China) was taken as an example here. Based on participatory rural appraisal data, we analyzed the structure and allocation of rural households’ livelihood assets as well as their livelihood diversity by using ecological asset, livelihood diversification index, and landscape pattern index models. We aimed to find a response mechanism between rural livelihood change and rural settlement land use change. The results might provide useful information for the selection of new village sites, reconstruction of rural settlements, and creation of livable rural environment. Results indicate that: (1) The total value of the average livelihood assets per household in the Sihe village increased significantly from 0.48 in 1988 to 1.288 in 2016. The four types of livelihood assets including natural, material, manpower, and financial assets changed with time. In 1988, the manpower asset was the most important type of livelihood assets, with value accounting for 76.67% of the total value of livelihood assets. With the extension of time, the proportions of the four types of assets in total livelihood assets became closer to each other. The livelihood diversification index of the Sihe village increased from 2.01 in 1988 to 3 in 2016, indicating the rural livelihoods became diverse; (2) Because of the dual influence of external environmental factors and the rural development policies of the country and the region, the livelihoods changed towards agricultural sector from 1988 to 2008, and the agricultural livelihoods tended to be diverse. The following trend of livelihood strategy change was observed: from diverse non-agricultural production group (IV) to agricultural and non-agricultural production group (III), then to diverse agricultural production group (II) and finally to agricultural production group (I). After 2008, the livelihoods changed towards non-agricultural sector, and the non-agricultural livelihoods tended to be diverse. This trend of livelihood change is opposite to that before 2008; (3) 2008 is the key year of livelihood change. Livelihood change caused changes in the scale, structure, and morphology of rural settlement land use, which eventually led to the change of rural residential land use.

GIS – SUPPORTED ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE DYNAMICS OF ABEOKUTA METROPOLIS FROM 1960 T0 2005

The study identified and analyzed land use patterns between 1960 and 2005, and examined the forces underlying land use change and projects the future pattern of land use change in the study area. Both primary and secondary data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and geospatial techniques of GIS and Remote Sensing. The results showed that settlement land use which was 1253.12 hectares (3%) in 1972 increased by six fold to 7684.27 hectares (16%) in 1984 and by tenfold to 12842.11 hectares (27%) of the total land area in 2005. Farmlands reduced from 8751.21 hectares (19%) in 1972 to 7144.32 hectares (15%) in 1984 to 3824.80 (8%) in 2005. The result equally showed that between 1972 and 1984 the population grew by 75.16% while settlements increased by 513.21%. Also between 1972 and 2005 the population grew by 206.70 % and settlements increased by 924.81 %. The result of the predictive model developed for this study showed that settlement, bare surface, shrub and water body will increase by 60.30%, 57.68%, 53.79% and 8.03% respectively while non-forested, farmlands, forested wetlands and light forest will decrease by 9.5%, 28.55%, 12.35% and 26.76% respectively. There were continuous changes among the various land use classes identified.

SUBURBAN ZONING OF BANDUNG RAYA AREA

Suburban area or urban periphery have an important role in supporting the development of the city. This role become increasingly important as the development of suburban areas from rural characteristics (agricultural) to urban characteristics (industry and services). The aim of this study is creating zone of suburban areas in four zones, that is: (1) Urban Frame Zone; (2) Rural Urban Frame Zone; (3) Urban Rural Frame Zone; (4) Rural Frame Zone. The method used in this research is spatial analysis based on proportion of agrarian land use with settlement land use. The data source used is the satellite imagery of Landsat 8 in 2015 in the suburbs area of Great Bandung. The result of this research is a Peripheral Zone Map of Bandung Raya in 1: 300.000. The map can be used as a reference in structuring and controlling development policies in Bandung Raya.

Spatiotemporal Decoupling between Population and Construction Land in Urban and Rural Hubei Province

In urban and rural areas under rapid urbanization, a proper understanding of the relationship between population and construction land use is important for regional sustainable development. The decoupling method is a particularly useful way to examine this relationship. However, the decoupling method only considers the current relationship between population and construction land, ignoring the initial status in the base year. Based on an improved decoupling model, vector land-use data (1:10,000 scale) from two National Land Investigations, and demographic data from the China Statistics Bureau, this paper analyzes population and construction land use change patterns as well as the types of coupling in urban and rural Hubei. The results better reflect the relationship between population and construction land use. The outcomes show that from 2009 to 2014, both the urban population and urban construction land use increased while the rural population decreased as rural settlement land use expanded. In 61 counties, the relationship between the urban population and construction land use showed expansive negative decoupling; that is, the growth rate of urban population was less than the growth rate of the urban construction land use. In 72 counties, the relationship between the rural population and rural settlement land showed a strong negative decoupling; that is, the rural population decreased while the rural settlement land use increased. The relationship between the urban–rural population and construction land use can be divided into eight types. Only nine counties are somewhat coordinated, while the other counties were all uncoordinated. Suggestions are provided by comparing per capita urban construction land and per capita rural settlement land in the base and current years with the national standard and considering the coupling types for population and construction land use change in urban and rural settings. Finally, we discuss approaches to optimize urban–rural space organization and promote coordinated urban–rural development.

Cellular Automata Modelling in Predicting the Development of Settlement Areas, A Case Study in The Eastern District of Pontianak Waterfront City

Pontianak waterfront city as water-based urban has the potential of water resources, socio-economic, cultural, tourism and riverine settlements. Settlements areas in the eastern district of Pontianak waterfront city is located in the triangle of Kapuas river and Landak river. This study uses quantitative-GIS methods that integrates binary logistic regression and Cellular Automata-Markov models. The data used in this study such as satellite imagery Quickbird 2003, Ikonos 2008 and elevation contour interval 1 meter. This study aims to discover the settlement land use changes in 2003-2014 and to predict the settlements areas in 2020. This study results the accuracy in predicting of changes in settlements areas shows overall accuracy (79.74%) and the highest kappa index (0.55). The prediction results show that settlement areas (481.98 Ha) in 2020 and the increasingly of settlement areas (6.80 Ha/year) in 2014-2020. The development of settlement areas in 2020 shows the highest land expansion in Parit Mayor Village. The results of regression coefficient value (0) of flooding variable, so flooding did not influence to the development of settlement areas in the eastern district of Pontianak because the building’s adaptation of rumah panggung’s settlements was very good which have adjusted to the height of tidal flood.

The pattern of spatial flood disaster region in DKI Jakarta

The study of disaster flood area was conducted in DKI Jakarta Province, Indonesia. The aim of this research is: to study the spatial distribution of potential and actual of flood area The flood was studied from the geographic point of view using spatial approach, while the study of the location, the distribution, the depth and the duration of flooding was conducted using geomorphologic approach and emphasize on the detailed landform unit as analysis unit. In this study the landforms in DKI Jakarta have been a diversity, as well as spatial and temporal pattern of the actual and potential flood area. Landform at DKI Jakarta has been largely used as built up area for settlement and it facilities, thus affecting the distribution pattern of flooding area. The collection of the physical condition of landform in DKI Jakarta data prone were conducted through interpretation of the topographic map / RBI map and geological map. The flood data were obtained by survey and secondary data from Kimpraswil (Public Work) of DKI Jakarta Province for 3 years (1996, 2002, and 2007). Data of rainfall were obtained from BMKG and land use data were obtained from BPN DKI Jakarta. The analysis of the causal factors and distribution of flooding was made spatially and temporally using geographic information system. This study used survey method with a pragmatic approach. In this study landform as result from the analytical survey was settlement land use as result the synthetic survey. The primary data consist of landform, and the flood characteristic obtained by survey. The samples were using purposive sampling. Landform map was composed by relief, structure and material stone, and process data Landform map was overlay with flood map the flood prone area in DKI Jakarta Province in scale 1:50,000 to show. Descriptive analysis was used the spatial distribute of the flood prone area. The result of the study show that actual of flood prone area in the north, west and east of Jakarta lowland both in beach ridge, coastal alluvial plain, and alluvial plain; while the flood potential area on the slope is found flat and steep at alluvial fan, alluvial plain, beach ridge, and coastal alluvial plain in DKI Jakarta. Based on the result can be concluded that actual flood prone is not distributed on potential flood prone

Spatial air pollution modelling for a West-African town

Land use regression (LUR) modelling is a common approach used in European and Northern American epidemiological studies to assess urban and traffic related air pollution exposures. Studies applying LUR in Africa are lacking. A need exists to understand if this approach holds for an African setting, where urban features, pollutant exposures and data availability differ considerably from other continents. We developed a parsimonious regression model based on 48-hour nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations measured at 40 sites in Kaédi, a medium sized West-African town, and variables generated in a geographic information system (GIS). Road variables and settlement land use characteristics were found to be important predictors of 48-hour NO2 concentration in the model. About 68% of concentration variability in the town was explained by the model. The model was internally validated by leave-one-out cross-validation and it was found to perform moderately well. Furthermore, its parameters were robust to sampling variation. We applied the model at 100 m pixels to create a map describing the broad spatial pattern of NO2 across Kaédi. In this research, we demonstrated the potential for LUR as a valid, cost-effective approach for air pollution modelling and mapping in an African town. If the methodology were to be adopted by environmental and public health authorities in these regions, it could provide a quick assessment of the local air pollution burden and potentially support air pollution policies and guidelines.

Employment of Geoinformation Technologies in Historical Researches Experience of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University

Relevance of the topic is due to the prevailing in modern science trend - complex study of society, not only in time but also in space, established thanks to the convergence and integration of Arts and Sciences. The paper aims to describe our own experience of association within the framework of a single information field of full-text data sources, mainly registration, accounting and statistics data (cadastres, scribe and census books) and maps to represent in terms of spatial coordinates the social stratification of the city Sviyazhsk and its surroundings in the XVII century. The leading method in the research of this problem is that of geo-information technologies. The main results of this work were the establishment of historical sources database of the period under study, data formalization of the written sources, compiling the geographic basis of geo-information system (GIS), digitization and creation of vectorized base of geo-data (BGD), which allows to localize and identify the settlement of Sviyazhsk County. The paper materials will be useful for further research and for model development of a settlement structure, farm tenure and land use, social stratification of the population and multifaceted relationships of towns and villages (peasantry) in the Middle Volga area in the second half of the XVII century.

Spatio-temporal characteristics of rural settlements and land use in the Bohai Rim of China

Based on multiple remote-sensing image interpretation and classification, and economic and social data, this study focused on rural settlement and land use change amidst rapid urbanization. Rural settlements, spatial and temporal patterns of land use and influencing factors in the Bohai Rim were explored within 5×5 km grid cells, as per GIS spatial analysis and geostatistical analysis. Results show that the spatial distribution of rural settlements in the Bohai Rim is remarkably varied. The number of rural settlement sites in a 5×5 km grid cell exceeding 5.0 are distributed in a six-area pattern in the Bohai Rim; rural settlement dispersion is particularly high in agricultural regions in south Hebei and southwest Shandong, suggesting rural settlement density keeps increasing from northeast to southwest, characterized by high density and dispersed spatial distribution in traditional agricultural regions. Furthermore, rural settlements show dramatic spatial differences in terms of distribution and dynamic change degrees in the Bohai Rim. In terms of spatial distribution, rural residential land is always extensive in plains, with a high density of rural settlements, on the North China Plain in particular, and rural residential land in the south of Shandong province is also extensive, with most rural settlement land use areas in the 5×5 km grid cells exceeding 3 km2. However, traditional agricultural regions have underdeveloped economies, industrialization and tertiary industries, characterized by low urbanization rates, with farmers not feeling assimilated in rural or urban areas. In terms of the temporal sequence, urban expansion rapidly promotes the transformation of rural residential lands in rural-urban transitional belts of provincial capital or prefecture-level city into urban lands, and in traditional rural areas, residential lands are growing. The natural environment, transportation conditions, economic development and farmers’ incomes all have effects on type of land use change and pattern of rural settlements. It is a core objective for future rural development to reconstruct a rational spatial pattern of villages or towns and well-organized village-town systems, build central villages, key towns or central towns, optimize or reconstruct production, living and eco-space of rural areas. It is of significance for rural geographical research to further interpret and explore spatial reconstruction theory.