Research On The Spatial Evolution Of Rural Settlements In Near Metropolitan Areas Under Rapid Urbanization

The spatial pattern of rural settlements has significant changes with the rapid development of urbanization in Zhengzhou.This trend has a major impact on boost the local economy and the evolution of rural landscapes.Xinzheng is near to Zhengzhou,the provincial capital of Henan,which has a high urbanization rate and changes a lot in rural settlements in recent years.It can be one of the typical representatives of fast urbanization.Researching on the spatial evolution of rural settlements in Xinzheng will not only enrich the theory of settlement evolution in rural geography but also provide a basis opinion for decision-making such as the implementation of rural revitalization strategies,the promotion of urban& rural equal development.This thesis is based on Xinzheng rural settlement patch distribution data,landscape pattern index which include the data of 1990,2000,2010,and 2017 and adopting spatial analysis methods.Kernel density and buffer analysis methods are the study method to investigate the influencing factors of the spatial evolution of rural settlements.Moreover,using those theories to analyze the spatial structure and evolution characteristics from 1990 to 2017 Xinzheng rural settlements.The following conclusions can be claimed in this study.In the past 30 years,the scale of rural settlements in Xinzheng was continuing to expand,and the total area of patches(the area of settlement settlements)has expanded significantly,but the number of settlements have decreased.The distribution pattern of rural settlements in Xinzheng in different periods has different characteristics and can be divided into three stages.First,the start period(1990-2000).Settlements have initially appeared in urban centers,and rural settlements are distributed in the west and east;Second,the high-speed expansion period(2000-2010),and the spatial pattern appears a phenomenon of “situation of tripartite confrontation.” The general changes in rural settlements are not obvious;Third,the rapid development period(2010-2017),the space of the three massive distribution areas expands steadily around,and some rural settlements disappear.Overall: the total area of settlement plaques increased significantly;the number of settlement decreased with time;the density of settlement decreased significantly;The maximum patch index of settlements is increasing.This research founds the spatial evolution of the overall rural settlements in Xinzheng is clustered,and it can be clearly reflected by the change in population.The central city is the earliest agglomeration and still increasing.Longhu Town is near Zhengzhou City and Xuedian Town is near Zhengzhou Airport Area where had a spatial agglomeration effect.These areas are far away from the southwestern part of the city,and most of the settlement patches were small in scale.That is the reason why agglomeration is quite weak.Comparing the changes in the population of administrative villages,the population in the downtown area of the central region,Longhu Town in the north,Xuedian Town in the east,Longwang Township and Baqian Township increased significantly,and the number of villages in the southwestern region decreased.The spatial structure of rural settlement patches changes from “single-core” to “dual-core" to “multi-core”.In 1990,“single-core” was the central city.In 2000,it was “one major,one minor”,with Longhu Town as the deputy center nearby the central city.In 2010,the “Three Centers” appeared,mainly in the central urban area,Longhu Town and Xuedian Town.In 2017,there were “three major and two minors”: the downtown area,Longhu Town and Xuedian Town were the major centers,and Guodian Town and Xindian Town were the minor centers.The distribution of rural settlement patches obeyed the rural rank-scale law,and the fitting effect was better,but the goodness of fitting decreased with time.The fitness for the city rank-scale rule continually rise,and the Zipf's index also increase continually.The difference in settlement distribution gradually appears,and the settlement scale development gradually moves closer to the city rank-scale.The spatial morphology of rural settlements is diverse and has the characteristics of complex evolution.There are obvious changes in the spatial form of rural settlements in Xinzheng which can be divided into five forms:(1)merged expansion and evolution.(2)New-style expansion and evolution.(3)Increased expansion evolution.(4)Recessive evolution.(5)Dying evolution.Base on space expansion,it can be divided into three categories according to the expansion shape: linear expansion,cluster expansion,and group expansion.There are different factors affect the rural settlements in Xinzheng such as political reasons,population migration,enterprise agglomeration,transportation network distribution,and education resource distribution.Government supports played a vital role in the expansion of settlements in the downtown area,Longhu and Xuedian Town.The construction of new district in Xinzheng,the operation of a modern integrated business and logistics city-HuaNan Cheng,the establishment of a comprehensive bonded zone and an airport port area.These are great opportunities for rural settlement development.This trend includes the development of the urban economy,farmers migrated to cities and towns,resulting in a reduction in rural settlements.The industrial transfer policy implemented by the state and the preferential measures formulated by the Xinzheng local government have attracted a large number of enterprises to settle in and attract industrial clusters.The rural settlements adjacent to them will rapidly develop.The road traffic network density shape the scale of rural settlements.In areas with dense traffic lines,the scale of rural settlements shows a rapid expansion pattern.Longhu Town and the downtown area,where has abundant education resources,promoted the expansion of rural settlements in this area.