Differentiation and identification of rural settlement support empowerment types in economically developed areas: Based on the perspective of promoting comprehensive rural revitalization

Promoting rural revitalization is a major task for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and identifying the types of rural settlement development and formulating targeted development countermeasures are the basis and key to effectively advancing comprehensive rural revitalization. The study examines three types of rural settlements in Suzhou city: agglomeration enhancement, characteristic protection, and suburban integration. Focusing on the three key support elements for rural revitalization: ecological empowerment, transportation facilities empowerment, and public services empowerment, the study investigates the differentiation characteristics of support empowerment in rural settlements within economically developed areas at the village scale. Utilizing a spatially constrained multivariate clustering method, the study identifies development types and proposes corresponding countermeasures based on support empowerment. The study shows that: (1) Under the role of support elements such as ecological environment, transportation facilities, and public services, spatial differentiation in support empowerment is evident across Suzhou's rural settlements. Specifically, ecological elements including topography, water bodies, and forests exhibit proximity to the three settlement types, forming a ring-shaped zonal distribution; transportation facilities empowerment shows regional variation, with high values concentrated along road networks in dendritic patterns; public services empowerment displays a spatial pattern characterized by an overall sporadic point distribution, with high values adjacent to township centers. (2) Quantitative analysis of the three support elements classifies Suzhou's rural settlements into six development zones: comprehensive promotion zone, ecological promotion zone, cultural and tourism promotion zone, governance promotion zone, key governance zone, and comprehensive governance zone. Based on the development idea of "driving weak elements with advantageous elements and promoting overall improvement with local mutual promotion", the study puts forward the countermeasures for the development of Suzhou's rural settlements under the support empowerment.