Spatial optimization of rural settlements based on the perspective of appropriateness–domination: A case of Xinyi City
Introduction
As the main aggregation place of the rural population, rural settlement spatial layout reflects the interaction between human activities and the geographical environment (Hosseini, Faizi, Norouzian, & Karimi Azari, 2015). Considering the influence of convenience production, historical origins, natural endowments, and customs, farmers choose an appropriate location for rural settlement construction. In the process of rural–urban transformation, farmers strongly demand the improvement of their living conditions. Farmland occupation caused by new settlement construction has increasingly become severe, resulting in rampant hollowing of rural residential land (Long, Li, Liu, Woods, & Zou, 2012; Tan & Li, 2013). Furthermore, rural–urban migration of agricultural laborers has intensified rural hollowing (Ge et al., 2019; Hu et al., 2016; Ma, Lu, Zhao, & Shaw, 2018).
Numerous studies have focused on spatial optimization of rural settlements under the background of rural vitalization and new rural construction (Berry, 1958; Christaller, 1972). Other studies discuss influencing factors of rural settlement formation, such as the natural geographical environment, economic conditions, policy mechanisms (Chen, Gao, & Chen, 2017b; Feng, Bao, & Jiang, 2014; Gu, Li, & Han, 2015; Lyu, Chen, & Zhang, 2019), and social culture (Martins, da, & Pereira, 2012; Vinas, 2019). Moreover, the potential division (Liu et al., 2018), development suitability (Jiang, Ma, Zhou, Zhao, & Zhang, 2017a), driving mechanism (Qu, Jiang, Tian, & Shan, 2019), and spatial optimization patterns (Zhou et al., 2018) of rural settlements from multi-dimensional perspectives were discussed using different methods such as multi-factor comprehensive judgment, single factor evaluation, and theoretical model construction (Zhang, Jiang, Cai, Sun, & Zhang, 2017).
Based on the man–land relationships, researchers mainly focused on formation mechanism (Tian, Kong, & Liu, 2018), evolutionary law (Falt'an, 2019; Li, Vliet, Ke, & Verburg, 2019; Qu et al., 2017), and spatial distribution characteristics (Gonzalez-Arqueros, Mendoza, Bocco, & Castillo, 2018; Yang et al., 2015, 2016) of rural settlements. In addition, spatial distribution characteristics, layout patterns, and long-term evolutionary rules of rural settlements based on geographical information systems and landscape ecology techniques were explored (Liu, Ye, Li, Kong, & Jiao, 2016; Long, Zhang, & Tu, 2019). Furthermore, impacts of topography constraints, river networks, location conditions, farmers' willingness, socio-economic development level on rural settlement layouts were discussed (You & Chen, 2019; Zhou et al., 2013). Given the varying development levels of rural areas, researchers adopted different optimization measures, such as grade, demolition–merger, farmer-led, and function-led optimization models (Mandaric, Milicevic, & Sekulic, 2017; Su, Hu, Shi, Zhang, & Yang, 2019; Wang, Li, Cheng, & Luo, 2020). It was found that the quantity and spatial layout location adjustment of rural settlements would benefit land resource allocation, promote rural space reconstruction, and accelerate rural–urban integration.
Existing research discussed spatial optimization schemes of rural settlements based on a single factor (Porta, Parapar, Doallo, Barbosa, Santé, & Crecente, 2013). Research methods focused on evaluating the suitability of selected community-oriented optimization models, which reflected the characteristics of a homogeneous landscape pattern and the absence of long-term dynamic monitoring research (Tian, Qiao, & Gao, 2014). Limited research examined rural settlement optimization based on the centrality and dominant function of settlements with different grades. As undeveloped towns form market activities, the market town often serves as an economic and cultural service center in the county town. Although the market town is the core area with basic public service facilities, it does not only meet the actual needs of farmers' production and life but also plays a key role in communicating towns and villages. Some market towns originated from merged (degraded) towns, which have certain administrative service attributes. Other market towns have been engaged in business activities in the past and have become centers of trading activities voted by villagers spontaneously. However, the important function of the market town as a transitional residential area in urban and rural areas was not fully considered as well as farmers’ independent decision-making. Although relevant research mentioned the importance of farming radius to agricultural production and life of farmers (Ge, Long, Zhang, Ma, & Li, 2018; Liu, 2000; Yang & Zhang, 2018), further clarification is needed with regard to the effect of cultivated distance on the spatial distribution of rural settlements. At present, in addition to emphasizing the development suitability of a traditional town–village system based on a bottom–up approach, attributes of the village and the radiation impact of townships have to be considered. Additionally, building a reasonable and orderly layout of village and town hierarchical settlement based on the top–down perspective is also necessary (Xiong, Zhang, & Yu, 2016).
This paper intends to establish an analytical framework of spatial optimization for rural settlements by combining the perspective of bottom–up appropriateness and top–down domination (hereinafter referred to as “appropriateness–domination”). It is worth noting that the bottom-up appropriateness refers to the retention possibility of rural settlements according to spatial competition and cooperation relationship. It also emphasizes the development orientation based on the comprehensive conditions of rural settlement, such as demolition, merger, specialization, etc. While the top-down domination stresses the hierarchy system of rural settlements, especially strengthen the regular characteristics of the generation and evolution of different levels of settlements.
We used Xinyi City of Jiangsu Province in this study considering the potential relationship between competition and cooperation in the city's hinterland. We adopted a dynamic correction method of multiple iterative sorting to compare and analyze spatial layouts of rural settlements under different farming conditions. Rural settlements within a certain range of farming radius affect each other, and it is necessary to propose a dynamic amendment and retention methods based on the cooperation and competition between rural settlements under different cultivation levels. We also obtained a reasonable number of reservation villages and their spatial locations by considering the important role of market towns in the village–town settlement systems and combining multi-scenario simulation schemes under different farming conditions and central place theory. The spatial optimization scheme of rural settlements based on the perspective of appropriateness–domination provided a reference for the optimization of rural settlements at the county level. This approach not only provided a spatial layout but also aimed at establishing a multi-scenario dynamic analysis of agglomeration strategy.
Section snippets
Analytical framework of rural settlement spatial optimization based on appropriateness– domination
Rural–urban development factors have frequent flows between urban and rural areas (Ge et al., 2019). Rural settlements show evolutionary laws such as number reduction, improvement of central function, and differentiation of organizational hierarchy. Administrative villages with sizable population and relatively complete public facilities gradually evolve into a central village, which is the most basic planning unit that can support the most basic assisted living facilities or even into a small
Research area
Xinyi City of Jiangsu Province is located at the junction of Jiangsu Province and Shandong Province and has a total area of 1616 km2. The city has 1 county center, 4 central towns, 9 general towns, and 22 market towns. It includes 219 administrative villages and 10,685 natural villages (Fig. 5). It is characterized by flat terrain, superior climatic conditions, and sufficient lighting conditions, which lay a good foundation for agricultural production. In 2017, Xinyi City's total population was
Spatial optimization results of rural settlements based on bottom–up appropriateness
China's National Rural Revitalization Strategic Plan proposed to promote rural revitalization following the ideas of gathering, upgrading, and integrating towns, while protecting their characteristics, and relocation and merger (Li, Vliet, et al., 2019; Long et al., 2019). The plan divided the villages into four types and defined the development characteristics of each type.
With scale expansion, rural settlements show a clear trend of agglomeration. However, scattered and small-scale rural
Classification and development direction of rural settlements based on appropriateness– domination
Existing research on spatial optimization of rural settlements mainly focuses on size, functional attributes, natural background, and socio-economic conditions (Liu et al., 2019; Mao, Liu, Wang, Tang, & Kong, 2017; Min, Yang, & Tang, 2016). That is, the spatial optimization scheme of rural settlements lacks multi-scenario dynamic evaluation based on different production stages, farming conditions, and rural economic development levels (Tang et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2019). Furthermore, although
Conclusions
Based on the analytical framework for rural settlement spatial optimization from the perspective of appropriateness–domination, we obtained a spatial optimization scheme and development guidance of different rural settlements based on social dominance theory and central place theory. Taking the Xinyi City of Jiangsu Province in 2016 as a case, we discussed iterative retention situation and spatial layout patterns of rural settlements under different farming radii. Moreover, we carried out
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41901204 and 41430635), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M660109), The Foundation of Humanity and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 19YJCZH036), Jiangsu Provincial Science Foundation (BK20190717), and Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Foundation (Grant No. 19GLC002).
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