Spatial heterogeneity analysis on distribution patterns and underlying determinants of historical rural settlements: a case study in Taihang Baxing

Abstract As vital carriers of cultural heritage, rural areas are facing the threats of degradation and urbanization during rapid urbanization processes. In recent years, China has formulated and implemented a series of national policies, regulations, and heritage protection lists to safeguard and perpetuate the traditional patterns and historical features of rural heritage. However, these rural heritage listings exhibit significant macro-level distributional imbalances and generally lack consideration of regional characteristics. This study uses the Taihang Baxing (THBX) in China as a case study, initially employing historical local documents and maps as base data. It utilizes the stability in the evolution of Chinese characters to compare historical and contemporary village names, filtering out existing historical rural settlements (HRS) to construct a dataset. Further, a multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model is applied to analysis the impacts of natural, economic, and social factors on the concentration of HRS (CHRS). The study reveals that the CHRS in the region is markedly characterized by clustering, with evident spatial heterogeneity in the impacts of various factors. Slope (SLP), total annual precipitation (TP), and potential crop yield (PCY) significantly influence the CHRS globally, while elevation (ELV), distance to ancient path (DAP) and surface runoff (DSR), gross domestic product (GDP), and road density (RD) have significant local impacts. This research offers a methodological framework for HRS data compilation and provides theoretical and methodological references for national and local levels of rural heritage protection, optimization of rural spatial patterns, prediction of rural evolution pathways, and implementation of China’s rural revitalization strategy.