Elucidating the Spatial Patterns and Influencing Mechanisms of Traditional Villages in Shanxi Province, China: Insights from a River Basin Perspective

Shanxi Province hosts a rich diversity of traditional villages. From a river basin perspective, adherence to natural laws and the removal of administrative barriers are essential for reshaping the conservation paradigm. Using spatial analysis and multiscale geographically weighted regression, this study revealed the spatial patterns of 619 traditional villages and how environmental, socioeconomic, and historical–cultural factors shape the spatial heterogeneity. Villages clustered within the Yellow River Basin and the Haihe River Basin, forming an agglomeration belt and three high-density cores. Distance to rivers was a key factor in village siting, with 70.8% located within 3 km of the nearest river. Village density exhibited a U-shaped relationship with distance to roads, and an inverted U-shaped relationship with distance to county-level administrative centers. The interaction between intangible cultural heritage density and average annual precipitation showed the strongest explanatory power, with positive local regression coefficients exceeding 95% and 72%, respectively. Traditional villages constitute an evolving human–environment system in which water resources underpin spatial patterns and intangible cultural heritage sustains endogenous cultural vitality. These findings provide a theoretical framework for graded conservation and resource coordination at the river basin scale.