Spatial patterns and macro-scale influencing factors of rural settlements in China

TAO Ting-ting;YANG Luo-jun;MA Hao-zhi;GUO Qing-hai;HAN Shan-rui;LIU Mao-song;XU Chi;School of Life Sciences,Nanjing University;Institute of Urban Environment,Chinese Academy of Sciences;

nearest neighbor distance;;Thiessen polygon;;spatial autocorrelation;;land resource;;high-resolution remote sensing

Spatial patterning of rural settlements can reflect how land resources are spatially segregated in agrarian societies.In this study,we conducted a systematic sampling at a national scale and used high-resolution remotely-sensed images to extract information on the rural settlements in eastern mainland China.We used spatial analyses and multivariate regression to quantitatively analyze structural attributes of rural settlements in relation to a set of environmental and socioeconomic factors at a large spatial scale.Results showed that the macro-environmental factors including climate and topography can well explain the geographic patterns of settlement density,between-settlement nearest neighbor distance and distribution of Thiessen polygons generated based on settlement points.Settlement density is mainly constrained by topography.In areas with higher water-energy flux and complex topographic relief,the between-settlement spatial segregation of land resources tends to present smaller spatial units,while the heterogeneity of such segregation tends to be elevated.In general,spatial structure of rural settlements is co-influenced by land resource supply and topographic constraint,reflecting a macro-scale human-nature relationship.Our work can help to better understand spatial characteristics of rural settlements at broad scales,and have useful implications to the current practice of ‘New Countryside Constructions' in China.