Abstract:
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to reveal the pattern and influence factors of rural settlements in main grain producing area, which had great significance for rural residential land consolidation under the background of urbanization. Keshan County was taken as an example in this paper, rural settlements data were extracted from the Countryside Land Survey Database of the 2nd National Land Survey in 2009, which was used as basic information source, and field research and interviews were conducted towards local settlements. Meanwhile, socio-economic data came from the Statistical Yearbook of Keshan County and other statistics of corresponding departments. Multiple GIS (geographic information system) spatial analysis software was used. Specifically, natural breaks method was employed to divide the scale of rural settlements, and these settlements were finally classified into 4 kinds based on size, including micro, small, medium and large rural settlements. Kernel density estimation method was utilized to analyze the distribution density of rural settlements. Then, certain spatial methods, such as, Getis-ord General G and Getis-Ord Gi*, were used to explore the distribution pattern and size of rural settlements. The pattern of rural settlements was explored through analyzing the scale, density and clustering characteristics, and the effect of topography and agricultural productivity level and geographical conditions on the pattern of rural settlements was also investigated. Results were obtained as follows: 1) The numbers of micro, small and medium rural settlements were too many, accounting for 89.44% of the total number of rural settlements, whose area was 67.56% of the total; their public infrastructures were not matching and service facilities were lacking, and the roads connecting these rural settlements were highly dense, which not only wasted a lot of land resources but also divided cultivated land into small pieces and destroyed its integrity. In addition, the degree of mechanization of agriculture in main grain producing areas reached more than 85%, so this organization did not adapt to the development of agricultural productivity and the life of internal residents. 2) Kernel density peak value of rural settlements was 1.58 /km2, kernel density of rural settlements in grain main production area of Songnen Plain ranged from 0.14 to 2.30 /km2, the overall distribution density of rural settlements was relatively low, and the scale presented globally low clustering spatial distribution, being consistent with the characteristics of main grain producing areas. Rural settlements in Keshan Town, north of Shuanghe and Kubei Town, northeast Xianghua Town, and middle part of Beixing and Henan Town showed a characteristic of small clustering spatial distribution, while the partial regions in Xilian, Xihe, Fazhan, Xijian Town and Keshan Farm as well as the sporadic regions in Gucheng, Xianghua and Beilian Town presented a feature of high agglomeration spatial distribution. 3) Scale distribution characteristics of rural settlements presented a trend, namely "low altitude hilly area < low altitude alluvial plain area < low altitude diluvia mesa area". The rural settlements in plain area took on a small clustering spatial distribution characteristic, the rural settlements in hilly area had a spatial distribution characteristic of high density, small concentration and low density mass concentration, and the rural settlements in diluvia mesa area had a characteristic of big scale spatial distribution and clustering. 4) Topography was the formation basis of initial location of the rural residential areas. But with the transformation of social economy, the improvement of agricultural productivity had a more obvious effect on rural settlement pattern adjustment in major grain producing areas. In location factors, the influence of urban radiation on settlement pattern was limited to a certain range. Traffic significantly changed the local spatial pattern of residential areas, and had obvious distance attenuation effect. Therefore, this study can provide a reference for the spatial layout optimization and regulation of rural settlements in these experimental areas.