1. Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China;
2. Department of Resources and Environmental Science, Henan University of Finance and Bconomics, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Abstract：Each social activity is done in certain spatial place. The rural settlement is the earliest life demand of rural population. Along with economic and social development, the evolutionof rural settlements has been ongoing with the patterns and internal structure. The location and the configuration of rural settlement reflect mutual influence and functional mechanism between human activities and the geographical environment. As the new rural reconstruction's development in China, the reorganization and construction of settlements are critical for rural development. The research on rural settlements location also fully demonstrates its important meaning. At present, the research about location of urban residents has been paid too much attention to, however, the research about the location of rural settlements is badly overlooked. The article focuses on an extensive review on literature on rural settlements. Four aspects are paid a particular attention to: (1)the factors that affect location selection of rural settlements;(2) location changes from their earliest place;(3) rural settlement distribution;and (4) spatial systems of rural settlements. The domestic related research about the location of rural settlements also focuses on the similar research fields, such as the theory research about the location selection of rural settlements, the research about factors that affect location selection of rural settlements, the research about vicissitude of rural settlements, the research about spatial distribution pattern of rural settlements, the research about the spatial plan of rural settlements, and so on. The research on the rural settlements is very complex. It relates to nature, economy, society, culture, population, and such like. At present, the domestic research about the rural settlements still needs to be strengthened. As we all know, the outer character, construction or distribution of Chinese rural settlements is very different from the rural settlements of other foreign countries. According to evidence from China and other countries, some further discussions are provided to further research on rural settlements under the fast changing context in current rural areas of China. Nowadays, the rural settlements of China have changed a lot with the development of society and economy, the rural settlements location research should be paid much attention to, in order to instruct the new rural settlement construction and plan. The construction of the rural settlement in future should moderately embark from the angle of peasant households on perfect residential settlement plan. In future research, such contents should be focused on, such as the microscopic theory about relationship between the location selection of rural settlements and surrounding geographical environment, the location change of rural settlements that is located in urban border district, the current rural settlement space segregation, the spatial systems ofrnral settlements in different regions, and so on.
李君, 李小建. 国内外农村居民点区位研究评述[J]. 人文地理, 2008, 23(4): 23-27.
LI Jun, LI Xiao-jian. A REVIEW ON LOCATION OF THE RURAL SETTLEMENT. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2008, 23(4): 23-27.
