Exploring the spatiotemporal trends and influencing factors of human settlement suitability in Hunan province traditional villages

The conservation and sustainable development of traditional villages have raised global attention in the context of rapid urbanization and modernization. Taking 703 traditional villages in Hunan Province as an example, this study first constructed a Traditional Village Human Settlement Suitability (TVHSS) evaluation system based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model. Then, the entropy weighting method was used to assess the spatiotemporal evolution of TVHSS from 2005 to 2020, while the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model was employed to analyze the influencing factors. The results indicate that the overall TVHSS score increased from 0.521 to 0.776 from 2005 to 2020, with a spatial distribution characterized by lower suitability in the northwest and higher suitability in the southeast. During this period, the pressure subsystem experienced an increase, peaking at 0.058 in 2015 before declining to 0.055 in 2020. Meanwhile, the state subsystem remained relatively stable, with scores slightly decreasing from 0.040 in 2005 to 0.033 in 2020. In contrast, the response subsystem showed a continuous upward trend, rising from 0.430 in 2005 to 0.688 in 2020. The distance to educational institutions, degree of relief, distance to water, and distance on intangible cultural heritage sites have the highest effects on TVHSS. These findings provide a scientific basis for the conservation and sustainable development of traditional villages and offer a replicable analytical framework for similar contexts globally. By addressing the complex interactions between environmental, social, and economic factors, this study contributes to the global discourse on rural sustainability, offering insights that can inform policy-making and guide the preservation of cultural heritage in the face of modernization pressures.