Spatial Pattern Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Rural Settlements in Rapidly Urbanized Areas: A Case Study of Jiangning District in Nanjing City, China

Abstract

Rural settlement is an important part of studying the relationship between humans and land; it is highly significant in revealing the evolution, driving mechanism and reconstruction scheme of rural settlement pattern. In this paper, Jiangning District, a rapidly urbanized area, was selected as a typical case. Using remote sensing image data, the landscape pattern index, the rank-scale law, the local hot spot-detection model, and the geographical-detector were comprehensively used to analyze the rural settlements pattern evolution and driving mechanism in the rapidly urbanized areas. The results are as follows: (1) From 2010 to 2020, the number of rural settlements showed a trend of large-scale reduction, and the settlements scale system was relatively uniform in Jiangning. The settlements scale had the autocorrelation characteristics of spatial agglomeration, and the local hotspot agglomeration pattern was significant. (2) The spatial distribution of rural settlements in Jiangning showed an “agglomeration” pattern, and the settlements density showed a “multi-core” distribution characteristic. (3) The pattern of rural settlements in Jiangning was shaped by natural environmental factors such as topography, water system and cultivated land resources; economic social factors such as agricultural population, per capita GDP, distance from town, and policy and system were the leading factors that promoted the settlements’ pattern evolution in Jiangning, and the interaction between the factors could enhance the interpretation of the settlements’ pattern evolution. The research can provide a reference for optimizing the spatial layout of settlements in rapidly urbanized areas.

Spatiotemporal Changes and Influencing Factors of Rural Settlements in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Region, 1990–2020

“…Rural reconstruction is of particular importance in improving the functions of the countryside, thus promoting rural revitalization. How to reconstruct and optimize rural space at larger scales with consideration of the different types of villages, such as agglomeration promotion type, suburban integration type, characteristic protection type, and relocation and withdrawal type [18], is a question worthy of in-depth investigation.…”

“…While discussions on land use changes have attracted widespread interest among global scholars [10][11][12][13], concerns about the changes in rural settlements and associated influencing factors were not given adequate attention until recent years [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Identifying the changes in residential places requires relatively rich data support, while rural areas with sparse populations were often thought to be lacking this data.…”

“…It reflects the living and productive activities and the spatial pattern of the population in vast swathes of countryside [23][24][25]. Accompanied by large-scale and wide-ranging urbanization in recent decades, issues about the evolution characteristics [18], driving forces [26,27], socio-economic and ecological effects [22,28], rural hollowing [29], abandoned arable land, and reverse urbanization [30] of rural settlements are gaining widespread attention. Some studies have reported that the size of rural settlements has undergone rapid expansion [31] or fluctuating changing patterns [15], while other scholars have found that the number of villages has declined significantly in recent years [32].…”

Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Driving Factors of Ecosystem Services in the Yellow River Delta, China

“…The interaction detector in the Geo-detector model that we have applied in this study can address this need. Additionally, in recent years, most studies on the driving mechanisms of ecosystem services have mainly focused on the spatial distribution during a single year or examined the difference between the final year and the base year [19][20][21][22][23][24]. The limitations of this static analysis are that it overlooks the complex variability of ecosystem services over time and the transitions of main driving factors in different periods.…”

The Spatial Association of Rural Human Settlement System Resilience with Land Use in Hunan Province, China, 2000–2020

“…Rural human settlement system resilience (RHSSR) is the basis for maintaining the healthy and stable operation of RHSS and the establishment of a sustainable evolutionary path [13]. The way in which to investigate RHSSR and further promote the system resilience has become an important issue, but only a relatively small amount of attention is currently focused on this topic [28,29]. Additionally, land use, as a mirror of socio-economic development, can reflect the spatiotemporal distribution patterns and development problems of rural human settlement [30], which means there is a close relationship between land use and RHSSR.…”