Spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of traditional villages in the Qiantang River Basin based on historical geographic information

Abstract

Abstract Traditional villages serve as crucial carriers for the inheritance and development of rural historical culture. Exploring the spatial distribution characteristics of traditional villages within specific geographic units across different historical periods from a historical–geographical perspective and examining their relationships with natural and cultural environments are instrumental in understanding the regional formation mechanisms of traditional villages. This has significant implications for the holistic preservation and differentiated utilization of these villages. This study focuses on 595 traditional villages in the Qiantang River Basin and constructs a historical geographical information database. By employing ArcGIS spatial analysis, geostatistical analysis, and historical literature review methods, this study investigates the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of these traditional villages and their influencing factors. Furthermore, the Geodetector model is used to analyze the importance of various factors influencing the distribution of traditional villages. The results indicate the following: (1) The traditional villages in the Qiantang River Basin exhibit a significant spatial clustering pattern, forming two core clusters and one belt-shaped aggregation area. (2) The historical development trajectory of traditional villages in the Qiantang River Basin can be divided into six stages: origin, expansion, peak, contraction, recovery, and saturation. The distribution center gradually shifted from the upper to the middle and lower reaches of the Qiantang River, with an expanded range and strengthened directional distribution, reflecting a north‒south spatial development sequence. (3) The spatio-temporal pattern of traditional villages in the Qiantang River Basin has been shaped by the combined effects of natural and cultural factors, with significant variation in the influence of these factors across different historical periods. The formation of traditional villages is more strongly correlated with natural factors such as elevation and water systems. This study clarifies the relationship between the evolution of traditional villages and the historical–geographical context of the Qiantang River Basin, expanding perspectives on the spatial characteristics of traditional villages and providing valuable theoretical insights into their preservation, inheritance, and development.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 23 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.