Fractal geometry of rural residential areas in Pingyi County Mountains and impact factors

The fractal properties are worth studying in the evolution of self-organization theory on rural residential areas. In this paper, taking Pingyi County Mountains in Shandong Province as a study area, the relationships were showed between influencing factors of location changes and fractal dimension values in rural residential areas by using fractal geometry, and the fractal properties of rural residential areas were demonstrated at last. It is concluded that: 1) The rural residential area, perimeter, population and fractal dimension are connected to each other. 2) The fractal dimension value of rural residential areas in Pingyi County Mountains decreases with elevation changes and slope increasing. 3) The fractal dimension value of rural residential areas is obviously higher than traffic dimension and water dimension. 4) The relation of rural population and rural residential area is allometry. The relative variation ratio of rural population is lower than the area variation ratio of rural residential areas, and the fractal dimension value of rural residential areas will increase in future. 5) With peasants’ net income growing, the fractal dimension of rural residential areas is rising, and its border sinuosity is lowering progressively and its form is turning regularization gradually. The paper can provide an academic basis for the rural residential land consolidation in practice.