Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2019, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 698-706.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2018.0629

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Dynamic Analysis of the Spatial Structure and Evolution Model of Rural Settlement in Guangdong Province From 1980 to 2015

JIAN Yu-qing, CHEN Ying-yi, XIE Yuan-yuan, GONG Jian-zhou   

  1. School of Geographical Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
  • Received:2018-06-09 Online:2019-06-25 Published:2019-06-25

Abstract:

Rural settlements research is a key part of rural geography studies and is one of the contents of the implementation of the "Rural Revitalization Strategy" of the 19th CPC National Congress. Based on the data of rural settlements in the period from 1980 to 2015, landscape index and GIS spatial analysis methods are used to explore the scale, shape, aggregation/fragmentation characteristics and evolution model of rural settlements in four sub-regions of Guangdong Province and Pearl River Delta, Eastern, Western and Northern Guangdong since the reform and opening-up. Results show firstly that the rural settlement area in Guangdong Province accounts for 2. 3%-2. 8% of the total land area of Guangdong Province in terms of scale characteristics from 1980 to 2015. The ranking in the order of sub-areas' size are the Pearl River Delta > Western > Northern > Eastern Guangdong. According to the proportion of each region, however, the order is Western > Eastern Guangdong > the Pearl River Delta > Northern Guangdong. The average area (14. 4-21. 9 m2) and scale variability (Patch Area Standard Deviation:144. 7) of rural settlements in Western Guangdong are the largest, followed by Eastern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta. The northern Guangdong has the smallest patch (10. 5-11. 1 m2) and ignorable change. Secondly, the index value of patch shape in the Western Guangdong and Pearl River Delta region is larger and more complex than that in the Eastern and Northern Guangdong in terms of shape characteristics. Small change has been observed in the Land Shape Index curve of the rural settlement in Eastern and Northern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta, while that of Western Guangdong is obviously declining. Thirdly, the Euclidean Nearest Neighbor Index was less than 1 in terms of aggregation/fragmentation characteristics from 1980 to 2015. The dynamic variation range was not obvious which indicates the rural agglomeration distribution in Guangdong Province and the four sub-regions. Finally, the spatial density distribution of rural settlements presents a pattern of "dense in the east and west wings, sparse in the north and central areas". The above results reveal that using multiple landscape indexes from different perspectives can effectively reveal the characteristics of different aspects of landscape space. The implementation of "rural revitalization" needs further deepen on the impact of physical geography, community economy and rural culture on the spatial characteristics of rural settlements, and strengthen the research on the guiding mechanism of government decisionmaking on the number, shape and spatial distribution characteristics of rural settlements.

Key words: rural settlement effect, spatial characteristic, evolution model, landscape pattern index, Guangdong Province

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