Abstract：Selecting two counties in which one is located in the plain (Yanjin county) and the other is in the mountainous area (Baofeng county) as cases, we analyze the differences of settlement spatial evolution between the two counties from the 1970 s. The results show that: (1) Plain county settlements become more dispersed, distributed throughout the county and gradually moving towards a random distribution, but mountainous county settlements become more agglomeration and the degree of agglomeration gradually increase during the study period. (2) Both two counties' settlement area increase, while mean patch size of plain county is significantly larger than mountainous county, and also grows more.Number of patches and patch density decrease in plain county while they increase in mountainous county. Largest patch index increases significantly in plain county, while it's opposite in mountainous county. Mean nearest-neighbor distance decreases and the proximity in plain county is weaker than mountainous county. Settlement continues to expand in both two counties and the expansion before the 1990 s is significantly faster than after the 1990 s, the difference is more obvious in mountainous county. (3) The settlement scale distribution of plain county tends to be concentrated, the middle settlement is more, settlement system is relatively reasonable. The mountainous county tends to be scattered, large-scale and small-scale settlements are more. (4) Population growth and economic development promote the settlement expansion. Compared with population, settlement expands faster, after 1990 the settlement expansion and population growth in mountainous county are convergence. Economic development cannot explain the difference of evolution of the settlements in the two counties. Terrain condition is the direct reason which leads to the difference between plain county and mountainous county in settlement distribution patterns and landscape index. The impact of traffic on the plain county settlements is more significant than mountainous county. The effect of township point is more complex on settlement in mountainous county, the leading role of the township points is to be further strengthened.
Keyword：urbanization; rural settlement; the flat area; the mountainous area; evolution; Yanjin County; Baofeng County;
【source】Economic Geography2017年04期
