The Spatial Evolution Of Tourist Rural Settlements In Mountainous Areas

Rural settlements are the main form of settlement for the vast mountain population.Relative to cities,the development of rural settlements is relatively slow,while the development of rural settlements in the mountainous areas is even more backward.Since the 1990 s,with the rapid development of urbanization and the advancement of new rural construction,major changes have taken place in rural settlements.Economic and social development has led to the gradual rise of rural tourism,which has brought new opportunities for the development of rural settlements.Tourism-based rural settlements have become one of the most important settlement types in the mountains,the analysis of the spatial evolution of tourism rural settlements in mountainous areas is an indispensable requirement for the construction of a new countryside and a beautiful countryside,and it has important practical significance for promoting the healthy,green and sustainable development of tourist rural settlements in mountainous areas.Taking the Chongdu village in Luanchuan county of Henan province as an example,this paper uses GIS spatial analysis,statistical analysis,survey analysis and other analytical methods to comprehensively analyze the evolution characteristics of the spatial form,space function and space scale of tourist rural settlements in mountainous areas,it also discusses the influencing factors of the spatial evolution of tourist rural settlements in mountainous areas,and draws the following findings.(1)The degree of agglomeration of settlements tends to increase.By means of the average nearest neighbor index analysis,it is found that the average nearest index of the spatial pattern was less than 1 and presented agglomeration feature before and after the tourism development of Chongdu village in 1996.However,before and after the development of tourism in 1996,there were different reasons for the degree of agglomeration and agglomeration.From 1975 to 1995,the change of rural settlements was relatively small,and it had small influence on the degree of agglomeration;from 1995 to 2009,the area of rural settlement patches became larger,the number of patches decreased,and the degree of agglomeration increased obviously;from 2009 to 2016,the number of patches has been significantly reduced,and the area of rural settlement patches has rapidly increased.However,from actual investigations and settlement patch maps,the degree of agglomeration of settlements is increasing.(2)The spatial form of settlementsgradually changes.From a layer of adobe house and brick buildings to two storeys,three storeys,four storeys,five storeys and above buildings.The settlement height is used to characterize the change in the spatial form of the settlement.Through on-the-spot investigation,it is found that the buildings of the village were all one storey before 1995;after 1995,most of the buildings were two storeys and three storeys,and in order to conform to the trend of rural tourism development,they were constantly renovated.(3)The function of settlements isgradually diversified.From ordinary residences to service-oriented functions such as tourism accommodation,tourism and catering,tourism and shopping,and tourism and entertainment.The function of land use in settlement is used to characterize the change in the spatial function of the settlement.According to datasfrom the investigation,before 1995,the settlement function of the village was a single accommodation function;after 1995,the settlement function of the village was gradually changed to tourist accommodation,tourism and catering,and the functions of tourism and entertainment,tourist shopping and other functions.(4)The spatial scale of the settlement is expanding.The scale expansion of Chongdu village is characterized by the area of the settlement patches,the proportion of the area of settlement patches,the average area of settlement patches,and the average annual expansibility index of settlement.From 1975 to 1995,the scale of the settlement land in Chongdu village has little changeand the average annual expansibility index of settlement is far less than the value of the whole study period,and the settlement shows a natural slow expansion trend.From 1995 to 2016,the size of the settlement land in Chongdu village has become larger and the settlement shows a rapid expansion.In the past 2009-2016 years,the average annual expansibility index of settlement in Chongdu village was the largest and the fastest expansion,far greater than the value of the whole research period.(5)The population size of the settlement has increased.Based on the population data obtained from the rural working population and on-the-spot investigation,the change of the population size of the village is analyzed comprehensively,and the number of rural employees in Chongdu village has increased significantly since 1996,and the age of the population employment has become longer,most of whom are selected to be engaged in tourism related services locally,and the foreign population was increased dramatically after 2000.It has increased the population size of Chongdu village.(6)The influence factors of the settlement change are diversified.The natural geographical environment was the basic factor for the distribution of tourism rural settlements in mountainous areas.It largely decided the spatial evolution pattern of rural settlement.The improvement of the traffic conditions led to the improvement of residents' living environment,the improvement of infrastructure in the village,which resulted in the evolution of the spatial pattern of settlement.The development of rural tourism provided an opportunity for the development of rural settlements,increased the annual per capita net income of farmers,changed and optimized the industrial structure,and also promoted the development and growth of rural settlements.It was the most important factor in the evolution of tourism rural settlements in mountainous areas.The implementation of government policies was a strong support for the development of rural settlements in Chongdu Village,which made the settlement expand further.Enabling people drove rural tourism and settlement development is an important factor in the evolution of settlements.These factors influence and interact together to promote the sustainable and healthy development of rural settlements.