Consolidation Potential of Rural Residential Areas Based on the Village Classification

From the perspective of village classification, a set of methods for accurately measuring the potential of rural settlement consolidation are proposed. Taking Feicheng in Shandong Province as the research area, combined with the corresponding planning, a classification and evaluation system for rural residential areas was constructed to classify rural residential areas from the four levels of natural resources, economy and society, supporting facilities and livability. The theoretical and practical potential of one type of rural settlements (relocating and merger village) is mainly calculated, and the potential scale, potential level and potential spatial distribution of different regions are analyzed. (Level and spatial distribution are analyzed. The results showed that the 621 rural settlements can be divided into five types: 148 urban-rural integration villages (URIV), 41 historical and cultural villages (HCV), 56 cluster developing villages (CDV), 155 keeping and limiting villages (KLV) and 221 relocating and merger villages (RMV). According to calculations, the theoretical potential of relocating and merger village areas was 1971.47 hm2, accounting for 19.52% of the total scale of Feicheng residential areas;the comprehensive correction coefficient of each region was 0.48 - 0.70, and the revised actual potential is 1082.68 hm2, accounting for the theoretical potential 54.92% of the total. There were large spatial differences in the scale of potential in different regions. In general, the theoretical and practical potential of the central and southern regions was higher than that of the northern regions.

Spatio-temporal characteristics of rural settlements and land use in the Bohai Rim of China

Based on multiple remote-sensing image interpretation and classification, and economic and social data, this study focused on rural settlement and land use change amidst rapid urbanization. Rural settlements, spatial and temporal patterns of land use and influ- encing factors in the Bohai Rim were explored within 5x5 km grid cells, as per GIS spatial analysis and geostatistical analysis. Results show that the spatial distribution of rural settle- ments in the Bohai Rim is remarkably varied. The number of rural settlement sites in a 5x5 km grid cell exceeding 5.0 are distributed in a six-area pattern in the Bohai Rim; rural settlement dispersion is particularly high in agricultural regions in south Hebei and southwest Shandong, suggesting rural settlement density keeps increasing from northeast to southwest, charac- terized by high density and dispersed spatial distribution in traditional agricultural regions. Furthermore, rural settlements show dramatic spatial differences in terms of distribution and dynamic change degrees in the Bohai Rim. In terms of spatial distribution, rural residential land is always extensive in plains, with a high density of rural settlements, on the North China Plain in particular, and rural residential land in the south of Shandong province is also exten- sive, with most rural settlement land use areas in the 5x5 km grid cells exceeding 3 km2. However, traditional agricultural regions have underdeveloped economies, industrialization and tertiary industries, characterized by low urbanization rates, with farmers not feeling as- similated in rural or urban areas. In terms of the temporal sequence, urban expansion rapidly promotes the transformation of rural residential lands in rural-urban transitional belts of pro- vincial capital or prefecture-level city into urban lands, and in traditional rural areas, residen- tial lands are growing. The natural environment, transportation conditions, economic devel- opment and farmers＇ incomes all have effects on type of land use change and pattern of rural settlements. It is a core objective for future rural development to reconstruct a rational spatial pattern of villages or towns and well-organized village-town systems, build central villages, key towns or central towns, optimize or reconstruct production, living and eco-space of rural areas. It is of significance for rural geographical research to further interpret and explore spatial reconstruction theory.

The process and driving forces of rural hollowing in China under rapid urbanization

Rural hollowing is a recent geographic phenomenon that has received significant attention in China, which is experiencing rapid urbanization. It has led to the wasteful use of rural land resources, and imposed obstacles on the optimization of land use and coordinated urban-rural development. Rural hollowing has various forms of manifestation, which refers to the neglect and vacancy of rural dwellings, both of which can lead to damage and ultimate abandonment of rural dwellings. Damaged dwellings have different degrees of destruction, ranging from slight, moderate to severe. The evolutive process of rural hollowing in general has five stages, i.e., emergence, growth, flourishing, stability, and decline. Based on the combination of both regional economic development level and its physiographic features, the types of rural hollowing can be categorised as urban fringe, plain agricultural region, hilly agricultural region, and agro-pastoral region. Especially, the plain agricultural region is the most typical one in rural hollowing, which shows the spatial evolution of rural hollowing as a ＂poached egg＂ pattern with a layered hollow core and solid shape. Furthermore, the driving forces behind rural hollowing are identified as the pull of cities and push of rural areas. In particular, this paper identifies contributors to rural hollowing that include rural depopulation in relation to rapid urbanisation and economic change, land ownership and land use policy, and institutional barriers.