Spatio-Temporal Pattern and Influence Mechanism of Rural Human Settlements System Resilience: Case from China

Abstract

The study of rural habitat systems from the perspective of resilience is of great significance in revealing the inner laws of the evolution of the rural human settlements system and promoting sustainable rural development. This study aims to explain the theoretical connotation of the rural human settlements system resilience (RHSSR), construct an evaluation system and zoning rules for rural habitat system resilience, and explore the spatial distribution pattern of rural habitat system resilience in China and the factors influencing the differences in the level of rural resilience using 30 Chinese provinces as examples to provide effective governance solutions for sustainable rural development. The results show that: (1) The RHSSR refers to the sustainability of the RHSS; i.e., the ability of a system to absorb and adapt to internal and external disturbances and shocks by adjusting the structure and scale of its internal elements, discarding the original inapplicable state to the greatest extent possible and creating a new recovery path to another new equilibrium state. (2) The overall downward trend of RHSSR in 30 Chinese provinces between 2000 and 2020 is consistent with the fact that a large number of villages have died out in China in recent years. (3) The RHSSR is higher in eastern China than in central and western China; although the regional gap is gradually narrowing. (4) An analysis of the evolutionary trend of the RHSSR shows that the northeastern and eastern regions of China belong to the major evolution area of the RHSSR; most areas in central and western China belong to the degraded vulnerable area of the RHSSR, while the potential recession area of the RHSSR is more scattered, mainly in Beijing, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia in northern China, Chongqing, Hubei, and Qinghai in central China, and Guangdong and Fujian in the southern China region of Guangdong and Fujian. (5) The results of the analysis of geographical detectors show that the effect of the basic-driven factors in the RHSSR decreases significantly with time, while the effect of the core-driven and externally-driven factors increases, and the effect of the two factors is greater than that of the single factor. Among them, industrial structure (IS) has an important influence on the spatial differentiation of the resilience level of rural human settlements system. (6) Optimization strategies are proposed in terms of spatial planning; industrial integration and public participation for the development of different sub-regions.

Comprehensive Evaluation of the Quality of Rural Habitat Environment in Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Protection Zone

“…(5) (6) The Euclidean distance formula was used to compute the following values for the separation between the optimal and minimum options as well as the composite scores. The formula for the district among the optimal and the poorest scenarios is given as:…”

“…At present, there is still room for deepening the research results on the environment of rural settlements. In terms of study areas, most of them are national [6,7], provincial [8,9], county [10], and wetland [11] studies. These studies have provided lessons for the improvement and management of rural habitats.…”

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

“…Against this background, the concept of resilience has gained significant attention in the field of rural studies since the new millennium, with the aim of improving the ability of rural areas to adapt to change and self-transform [2]. Several studies have been conducted in terms of conceptual connotation, typology, influential factors, and quantitative measures [7][8][9][10]. And some researchers understand rural resilience in terms of a single subsystem of the rural area (e.g., economic viability) and Land 2023, 12, 1524 2 of 18 rural sustainability, but rural resilience focuses more on the adaptive capacity of the system itself [11,12].…”

“…These factors have an impact on the harmonious development of the relationship between rural people and land and can reduce the stability and adaptability of the RHSS. In addition, many researchers hold the view that the RHSS is composed of the five major subsystems (natural, human, residential, supporting, and social) and that changes in any subsystem element will cause corresponding changes in other elements, forming a chain reaction and leading to changes in the system state [10,13]. Several studies have also assessed the comprehensive quality and development potential of RHSS from the perspectives of sustainable development [21], rural tourism [22], rural migration [23], rural landscape maintenance [24], and rural system vulnerability [25].…”

Comprehensive Evaluation of Community Human Settlement Resilience and Spatial Characteristics Based on the Supply-demand Mismatch between Health Activities and Environment: A Case Study of Downtown Shanghai, China

“…As the first battle to achieve high-quality urban development, promoting the sustainable development of the community human settlement system can effectively alleviate the contradiction between people's growing need for a better life and unbalanced and insufficient development [43][44][45]. Currently, scholars at home and abroad focus on the conceptual cognition of human settlement [44,46] and research on human settlement from the perspectives of sustainable development [47][48][49], livability [50,51] and vulnerability [52,53], using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods such as the questionnaire survey administered to residents [54,55], the entropy method [45,56], GIS spatial analysis [48,57], the coupling coordination degree model [58,59] and the geographical detector model [60]to study the human settlement . The urban human settlement system has been explored and the connotation, components and evolutionary trends of the human settlement system have been clarified.…”