A Research On The Development And Morphology Of Urban And Rural Settlement In Tam River Basin

The development of urban and rural settlement in Tam River basin is a part of development history in Guangdong Province with universality and particularity. The settlement development in this area has inherited Guangfu culture in Lingnan area, and made progress along with Guangfu culture. From view of exploring the development history of settlement and local characteristics, the morphology research of urban and rural settlement in Tam River basin is significant for study of development rule of local urban space.The scope of this research project is about development history and space morphology of settlement. This research has two purposes. One is to explore the theoretical method with comprehensiveness and systematicness in study of urban and rural settlement morphology. Another one is to fill in the blanks of study of urban and rural settlement morphology in Tam River basin, and explore the evolution law of the settlement morphology.In chapter 1,the research framework and method are explored. In research process, the research framework has been built, adopting the theories of urban morphology and human geography. On the basis of understanding of settlement morphology, the morphology can be divided into five key elements: border, surface, line, point and natural object. Then each key element can be subdivided into several internal elements. These key elements and internal elements in two levels will compose the internal analysis framework. Furthermore,in order to research the space morphology of city and town, combining the“town plane analysis method”by Conzen school of thought and traditional“point, line, surface”method, a research framework of“street network, land layout, architecture morphology”is built. Meanwhile, we would introduce in the‘human-land system’theory in morphology research of local settlements, and create an external analysis framework possessing seven external factors including environment, resources, development, population, culture, organization and technique. Starting with external influence factors, we would reveal successively the development context of settlement, the generation law and mechanism of settlement morphology. Combining internal and external frameworks the comprehensive analysis method in this research would be established.The content from chapter 2 to chapter 7 is the main part of this thesis. In chapter 2, the development history and distribution morphology of urban and rural settlement in Tam River basin are analyzed with comprehensive analysis method. The research shows that the development history of settlement in this basin can be divided into 6 periods. The settlement distribution after Song Dynasty is mainly analyzed in this thesis. There are four stages of space distribution expressing as:‘Point-axis’distribution Evenly spread‘Point-axis’densifying‘Point-axis’gradual spreadThe process reveals that the settlement transition is related to some factors such as economy, traffic and humanity, etc. The settlements in this basin can be divided into 4 levels: prefecture-level city, county-level city, town, and village.From chapter 3 to chapter 6, the typical cases of internal morphology development of urban and rural settlement in Tam River basin are analyzed adopting comprehensive analysis method.In chapter 3, the urban morphology for Jiangmen and Huicheng are analyzed. Huicheng is the earliest city in Tam River basin. In Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, under the influences of both feudal social system and Guangfu culture, the urban morphology in Huicheng was consistent with regulation of“rite system”. Since the foundation of the Republic of China, Huicheng has gradually parted from the feudal urban morphology and became a modernized city with strong commercial and cultural functions. In the same period, Jiangmen originated from market town, changed rapidly into the central city in Tam River basin due to the continual development of commodity economy. Jiangmen formed a river-port city with the morphology of strap shape, extending to present thanks to the continuous development of river-port economy.In chapter 4, the morphology of typical towns in Tam River basin and its development are researched. There are two routes in development of towns. The first route is that the modernized town formed from administrative or military center. The second one, town formed from market center. Nowadays, most towns have transformed into industrial towns depending on the local traffic system and will still go on to do so in the future.In chapter 5, the traditional villages in Tam River basin with multicultural background are researched. According to the influence of Guangfu culture, Xiema village with tradition of“edge plow edge read”and Liangxi village with different clans of residents with different surnames are formed. The morphology in Xiema village has a layout with comb style and the morphology in Liangxi village has a layout with leaf vein style. Lushuping village on a hill, an isolated island in culture is a typical Kejia village. Its houses with lock shape and the layout of stair style are decided by Kejia culture and their life style. In period of R.O.C., overseas Chinese villages generated by overseas Chinese culture are distinctive villages in Tam River basin. There was a settlement of“Dan Min”people living on the water in Tam River basin. They were descendants of ancient“Nan Yue”people, and lived in“Floating homes”, a kind of small boat. The research shows that the main factors impacting on space morphology of village are economic resource, administrative system, traditional culture and village rules, etc.In chapter 6, some distinctive elements of morphology in urban and rural settlements in this basin are investigated. By visiting some settlements, we found out that many morphology elements in Tam River basin, such as tea house, well, water way, bridge, fence, lane, tower and fort, are meaningful landscape resorts with humanity characteristics.In last chapter, the conclusions are established. Based on the enlightenment of this research, facing the problem of sustainable development, some measures about environment protect, histories and cultures protect, land development and supply of public facilities are explored.