Analysis On The Formation And Evolution Process Of Ancient Huizhou Traditional Settlement Space Network

The reasonable protection and scientific utilization of traditional settlements are the hot issues of common concern in the current social and urban planning disciplines.In 2010,the Ministry of Culture proposed to establish 18 national-level cultural and ecological protection zones across the country.As the first “Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone” in the province,the ancient Huizhou is a traditional Chinese settlement which has the largest preservation area and the most complete protection area with a long history and rich cultural heritage.It is a rare material cultural wealth and has important academic research value.Traditional settlements within a certain area are not isolated individuals,but organic entities that work together with the external environment.Therefore,as to the protection of traditional settlements,we need urgently to change the research perspective,from the split protection of the past monomer to the systemic protection mode of the whole region.This paper attempts to apply the perspective and method of "space network" to the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement research,and explore with a logic of long-term changes the process of its generation and evolution from the regional overall level.The characteristics of the network structure are sorted out to clarify the self-organizing law of its evolution.It has certain guiding significance for further clarifying the appropriate protection and utilization methods for traditional settlements in the future,and improving the planning theory and method of traditional settlement protection and utilization.This paper sorts out the historical data,academic literature and on-site questionnaire research data.The space network of the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement is divided into two parts: the material space network based on the natural landscape network and the artificial matter space network,and the non-material space network based on the clan social network.Under the technical support of geographic information technology and social network analysis method,there are three kinds of data have been selected out from the 470 ancient Huizhou traditional settlement samples,the ancient road vector data with the record of founding time,and the migration information of the Cheng's clan in ancient Huizhou found in "Xin'an Famous Family","Huizhou Great Surname" and some county annals.From the two dimensions of time and space,the formation and evolution process of the ancient settlement space network in ancient Huizhou,the characteristics of the spatial network in each stage and the dynamic mechanism of its evolution will be discussed.Through the analysis of the structural characteristics of the overall natural landscape network and the analysis of the evolution of the artificial matter spatial network based on its time and spatial dimensions,the characteristics of the natural landscape spatial network of the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement can be summarized as follows: 1.Surrounded by mountains which are all steep and above 1,000 meters,the central land is almost a basin,forming a relatively closed natural geographical environment.2.The water system in the area is highly developed and the river network is densely distributed.The overall water network is relatively high in branching,and the water network is well developed and rich in structure.3.The landforms in the territory are mountainous and hilly,and the basin area is not large.Since ancient times,it has faced the problem of “more mountains and fewer fields”.The evolution history of the physical space network and the characteristics of the spatial network of each stage can be summarized as follows: 1.Prototype period – the scattered distribution of the spatial network;2.Formation period – the rudimentary system of the spatial network;3.Development period-the extension development of the spatial network;4.Booming period-the all-round development of the spatial network;5.Coexistence period-the recession of the ancient road space network and the forming of the modern transportation space network.Through the establishment of the contact matrix of Cheng's clan social network in the ancient Huizhou area and through the analysis of the evolutionary structure map of the Cheng's Clan social network in each period drawn by Net-Draw visual analysis software,the evolution process and characteristics of the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement social network structure are summarized as follows: 1.The founding period——Based on the strong communication with the first immigration ancestors,the clan social network tends to be a “single-center” radiant evolution.2.The development period—— As the communication between the new population and the ancestors becomes weaker and weaker,the clan social network tends to be a “multi-polar” infiltration evolution.3.The prosperous period – With the coexistence of both strong and weak communication with the ancestors,the clan social network is a “point-line-surface” embedded evolution.4.The recession period——The stable structure of the clan social network has declined.In summary,the overall structural characteristics of the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement space network can be summarized as follows: the material space network structure is significantly improved,and the non-material space network(clan social network)structuralcohesion is significantly reduced.Finally,through the above analysis,the process of the formation and evolution of the ancient Huizhou traditional settlement space network and its network characteristics have been sorted out,and then the evolutionary dynamic mechanism is sorted out.The dynamic mechanism mainly includes the following five aspects: 1.The impact of the natural geographical environment;2.The impact of external immigration of the population and the internal division and emigration;3.The impact of social and economic development;4.The influence of the clan system;5.The influence of governmental policies,etc.This paper sorts out the specific situations of spatial network evolution in a specific geographical area,and clarifies the dynamic mechanism of the evolution of traditional settlement space network,so that we can effectively judge its future development trend and provide an effective theoretical basis for the formulation of both the coordination and protection system and the controlling strategies in the cultural heritage of the future regional overall level.