The Spatial Evolution Of Rural Settlements During The Industrialization In Traditional Rural Area

Since economic reform in the late 1970s and opening-up of its borders, China has experienced a rapid industrialization process. During this process, small towns and rural areas have experienced dramatic changes with rural industries playing an important role. Rural settlements, as the basic unit of the man-land relationship, have also experienced significant changes at the same time. Spatial evolution of rural settlements and the mechanism and trends of this evolution during the industrialization process, have important theoretical and practical significance in the literature of geography research and rural area development.Given this background, the selection of Xinxiang County and Changyuan County as study areas is based on the consideration of their locations being in the traditional agricultural area in China. The theoretical foundation mainly includes the man-land relationship, location theory, Christaller's central place theory, Freedman's core-periphery theory, complex system theory, among others. Data supporting this research primarily came from interpreted remote sensing imageries, topographic maps, administrative division maps, statistical data, and field surveyed data.First, a suite of spatial analytics are used in this research to explore the characteristics of spatial patterns, scale, and structure of rural settlements. Second, this research applies a structural equation model to analyze potential underlying factors that influence the spatial evolution of rural settlements and that form the mechanism of how rural settlements evolved. Finally, exploratory geographical simulations and optimization systems are used to analyze and forecast the evolutionary process of rural settlements.The main conclusions from this research are:(1) The spatial distribution of rural settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County has shown homogeneous local agglomerations during the industrialization process. Areas with high settlement density are mostly concentrated in the vicinity of central towns and those areas with advanced industrial development. Over time, rural settlements in Xinxiang and Changyuan showed increased spatial proximity with reduced distances between them. It should be noted that this increase of spatial proximity is not static, nor homogeneous. This is because such changes are the most significant in the areas of central towns and industrial development areas and the weakest between rural settlements in other areas. The specific features are as following: ?. From 1975 to 2014, the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County, using average nearest neighbor indices, shows a trend of changing from a homogeneous pattern to an agglomerated pattern. ?. In the same period, the calculated standard deviation ellipses show that both Xinxiang County and Changyuan County are close to high density areas of rural settlements. ?. In addition,faster changes are observed in rural settlements that are in close proximity of central towns and industrial development areas, while other rural settlements show only slower changes.(2) The scale of evolutionary changes in rural settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County shows an accelerating trend of significant expansion over time. The hotspots of such expansion are mostly concentrated in the towns and industrial areas with better development. They show a trend of expansion. Larger settlements are found to be mostly concentrated in the vicinity of central towns and industrial towns. The specific features are as following: The settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County show a significant expansion trend over time. The speed of spatial expansion of rural settlements in Changyuan County is faster than that in Xinxiang County. However, both show accelerating trends. The hotspots of spatially expanding settlements in both counties are mostly concentrated in industrialized areas. The settlements show a similar set of evolutionary characteristics as that of industrialization. The number of large-scale settlement is increasing over time, mainly near central towns and industrial areas.(3) Settlements in both counties show spatial structures with complex characteristics. They range from low-level system to high-level system of industrialization advancement. The hierarchical system of settlements in the two counties shows a dynamic evolutional pattern in each stage of industrialization. This is, however, differences from the central place system as described by Christaller's central place theory, especially when there is only one core with peripheral areas. The specific observed properties of settlement pattern are:?. The settlement pattern in the two counties shows an evolution from low level settlements to high level settlements that parallels to industrialization in this region. The sizes of the settlements do not comply with rank-size rule. Instead, they show a pyramid structure with fewer high level centers and more low level centers as a whole. ?.The central place system in the two counties shows that, such system in reality is more complex than that described by Christaller's central place theory. The real world system also shows regionalism and localism. Its dynamic evolutional pattern is closely related to the social economic development and how population grew in the region. It presents different levels of system in different developmental stages. Meanwhile, the central hierarchy system abides to the proximity effect and regional effect in that the lower level centers that are adjacent to high level centers tend to grow to higher level centers or merge to existing higher level centers in close proximity than other lower level centers that are away from higher level centers. ?. The spatial structure of settlements in Xinxiang County has experienced a development from a less homogeneous layout in the planned economy period to the core-periphery pattern in the middle of industrialization, to forming gradually a complex network structure consisting of a number of core-periphery structures in the later period of industrialization. In parallel, the spatial structure of settlements in Changyuan County shows changes from a status of a low equilibrium layout in the planned economy period, to a single core-periphery distribution in the early stage of industrialization, and then to a spatial structure containing several core-periphery structures in the later stages of the middle period of industrialization.(4) Based on the structural equation model of rural settlement and the analysis of influencing factors on the spatial evolution of rural settlements, the settlement space evolution is in traditional agricultural areas of Xinxiang County and Changyuan County. It is mainly affected by the industrial development, the social economy, government mechanism, urban development, and the interactions between these factors. Among them, the industrial development is the major driving force while social economy, government mechanism, and urban development are the external driving forces. These driving forces, through economic spillover effect, the effect of space radiation, and policy-oriented effect, transmitted to upholding the evolution of the settlement space.(5) Based on the analysis of influential factors, this dissertation uses the GeoSOS to analyze the process of spatial evolution of the settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County from 1995 to 2015. Results of simulating changes in the spatial distribution of settlements in Xinxiang County and Changyuan County are discussed in Chapter 5. Results of forecasting how the space development of settlements in Xinxiang County shows that it tends to gear towards metropolitan area in the future. As opposed to this, settlements in Changyuan County seem to gather around industrialized towns and along the Xinhe Railway. The specific features are:The direction of development of settlement space in Xinxiang County trended to Xinxiang City from 1995-2004, while GuGuZhai town had a large area expansion. From 2004 to 2014, the development of settlement space from the center of Xiaoji town and Gaoxinqu to Zhaipo town and Qiliying town, and Guguzhai town, Langgongmial town area formed a large settlement agglomeration. Based on data of 2014, the space of settlement expansion from 2014 to 2024 seems to be directing to Xinxiang City. From 1995 to 2014, the significant expansion area of Changyuan County was mainly concentrated in Weizhuang town, Naoli town, Dingluan town, and Zhaodi town. The space development in Changyuan County in 2024 is forecasted to be along Xinhe Railway, and to Weizhuang town and Naoli town.(6) This dissertation is mainly concerned with three aspects of innovation in research content, research methods, and theoretical research. The research of the spatial evolution of rural settlement during the industrialization in traditional rural area is building on the background of traditional agricultural industrialization development of settlement evolution research. By using a structural equation model (SEM), geographical simulations, and an optimization system (GeoSOS) to analyze influential factors of the evolution of settlements, this dissertation enriches the research methods of settlement geography. The research on the dynamic system of central places and their evolution and regional spatial structure of settlements during industrialization makes up the deficiency of Christaller's central place theory. This research also attempts to incorporate Freedman's core-periphery theory in explaining the dynamic evolution of the spatial system of settlement economy at county scale.