|
|
|
| THE MAJOR RESEARCH PROGRESS ON SPATIAL EVOLUTION OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS OF WESTERN CHINA |
| WANG Chuan-sheng1,2, SUN Gui-yan2,3, ZHU Shan-shan2,3 |
1. Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
3. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China |
|
|
|
|
Abstract Spatial evolution of rural settlements has been a long-term research topic for all scholars. For poor conditions, most of mountain areas of western china face with the great population pressure, in addition, the ecological problem and the impoverished problem mingle with each other over a long period, which not only has received the government attention, but also get the attention of ecological protection organizations and social development organizations in regional level and global level. This paper mainly summarized the related research of spatial distribution law, spatial evolution characteristics and their causes of rural settlements since the 20th century. The development and introduction of human geography and rural geography in western countries gave birth to the rural settlement geography in mountain areas of western china. The birth of "new geography" and widespread utilization of measurement revolution and remote sensing technique promoted the general theory frame establishment and deepening spatial evolution pattern and mechanism research. During the rapid developing process of rural economy and society, the living space of farmers has expanded to bigger scope and the residential living activity intensity has became more and more strengthened. Therefore, the spatial distribution of rural settlements constantly change from the extensive dispersion to the moderate centralism would become the mainstream tendency in the future. The research shows that:along with the strengthening integration among different disciplines, rural settlement research has gradually evolved from general rule analysis based on cases to exploring the construction of theoretical system.
|
|
Received: 28 February 2011
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011, Vol. 26 
