SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIONAL CULTURAL RELIC PROTECTION UNITS
XI Xue-song1, XU Li-yan2, CHEN Yi-yong3
1. College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China;
2. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;
3. College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Abstract The newly established Development Priority Zoning is a basic guidance of regional development and protection. However,the zoning has largely ignored the concerns of cultural heritage protection. Integrating Development Priority Zones with cultural heritage protection zoning is thus urgently needed,whereas understanding the spatial distribution characteristics of Cultural Relic Protection Units constitutes important basis of the work. Utilizing a first-handed Cultural Relic Protection Unit database,we examined the spatial distribution characteristics of Cultural Relic Protection Units in national,province,and city levels. Spatial clustering analyses are conducted following to the criteria of both category and historical features of Cultural Relic Protection Units. Geographical zoning analysis is then integrated to explain the distribution characteristics. Results show that the spatial features reflect the evolution and communication of the Chinese culture in tempo- spatial dimensions,and that they are largely related to both natural geographical features such as climate and topography,and human geographical features such as regional economic,social and cultural characteristics. In the temporal dimension,Cultural Relic Protection Units prior to Qin Dynasty are distributed mainly in lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River,the Yangtze Delta,and the Jianghan Plain. In the spatial dimension,the most concentrated area of Cultural Relic Protection Units is the middle and lower reach of the Yellow River,specifically central Shaanxi Province,west Henan Province,south Shanxi Province,Beijing,Tianjin,north Hebei Province,and west Shandong Province.s
2013, Vol. 28 
