A Study On Spatial Pattern Of Residential Area In Inland River Basin Over The Arid Areas

In recent years, due to the irrational development and utilization, the serious deterioration of the ecological environment of Shiyang River Basin has been a threat to the sustainable development of socio-economic; it caused the state leaders and the public's attention. From many different angles, Researchers explore sustainable development issues of Shiyang River Basin.The irrational development between "people" and "land" will aggravate the discord of the environmental degradation in the region, increase regional pressure and so on. In this paper, from the distribution settlements of the Shiyang River Basin, use GIS methods, quantitative analysis and qualitative summary, explore the settlements characteristics of Shiyang River Basin, in order to find the sustainable smooth law between "person" and "land" of the Shiyang River Basin.The results show that the Shiyang River Basin as a typical inland river basin of arid region, its internal distribution of settlements has its own particularities:(1) The average center of the settlements in the region south deviate from the center of regional centers, the settlements distribution of intra-regional is non-uniform, settlements in the northern part is more than the southern, the differences of the settlements number on an east-west direction is small. The way of settlements distribution is not simply follow the principle of low distribution.because natural conditions is imbalance in the region, settlements distribution is largely different in four direction of northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. Settlements distribution is along the northwest - southeast axis ,the Southwest - Northeast is axis of downstream from the source of the River Basin, the number of the settlements distribution is increase from upper reaches to middle reaches ,is decrease from middle reaches to lower reaches.(2) The settlements distribution is overall in the type of random in Shiyang River Basin. First, the settlements distribution is water-based,form a northeast - southwest intensive belt along the main road of Shiyang River ;second,it is convergence line, form the Southeast-northwest intensive belt along the railway and trunk roads , "T" shape area formed by cross of water system and the main road divide the basin into three parts: the Qilian mountains in southwest, the Badain Jaran Desert in the northern and Tengger Desert in northwest, the natural conditions of these areas is poor ,residents distribution is sparsely and decentralized.(3) Bearing capacity of the natural environment of Shiyang River Basin is low, residential areas is small, there is only one settlement in 25km ; settlement density is very uneven, the settlement density of Liangzhou District is largest, Sunan County, less than one-fifth of Liangzhou District, is the smallest.(4) the settlements distribution of Shiyang River Basin is close to the elevation, the more the elevation, the less the settlements distribution. The desert which is less than 1700m is unfit for human habitation; the Qilian Mountains which is over 2900m is high elevation, surface broken, unfit for human habitation, the settlements distribution is scarce. Basin relief is inversely proportional to the number of settlements, the greater the relief, the fewer the number of settlements, the residents distribution is low-value, the number of settlements and relief showe the trend of exponential decay.(5) Linear features have a greater impact on the number of residents, but the effective distance is inconsistencies. The impact of the road on the settlements Distribution is greater than the railways, and the impact of rivers on the settlements distribution is obviously greater than the line.(6) the study area is divided into the Qilian Mountains area and Hexi Corridor area, the settlements distribution of these internal areas are very different: more settlements in the Hexi Corridor region, settlement density, is randomly distribute, most in better hot water and transport facilitation oasis areas, sharp contrast with the desert of very few settlements; settlements of Qilian Mountains is less, locate in river head, concentrate gathered distribution.