Spatial distribution and driving factors of bronze drums in Hechi, Guangxi: a comprehensive approach based on spatial econometrics and statistical modelling

The bronze drum, held at the Guangxi Hechi National Bronze Drum Cultural and Ecological Protection Zone, is a significant medium for cultural exchange between southern China and Southeast Asia. This living heritage reflects the deep vein of regional civilisation exchange through its 2700-year-long inheritance. However, its spatial evolution mechanism and driving factors remain unexplored, representing a gap in the academic research literature. This study broke through the limitations of traditional qualitative analysis by integrating spatial econometrics and geographical detector models for the first time. Such an approach allowed the study to analyse, quantitatively, the spatial pattern and formation mechanism of 1446 bronze drums handed down in Hechi. The analysis revealed the following: (1) The distribution of bronze drums exhibits a significant agglomeration pattern of ‘single core and one bell’; (2) Its agglomeration characteristics are driven by a combination of environmental factors (medium to high altitude, steep slopes, riverside) and socio-cultural factors (medium to high density of traditional villages/intangible cultural heritage, medium to low density of population/road network); (3) Geographical detectors identify four key factors: distribution of traditional villages, slope, density of intangible cultural heritage, and road network density, among which the interaction between traditional villages and intangible cultural heritage projects has the strongest explanatory power. By constructing a ‘culture-environment’ coupled analysis framework, this study has provided a methodological paradigm for interdisciplinary cultural heritage research. The revealed driving mechanisms can provide scientific decision-making basis for the formulation of differentiated protection strategies in Hechi Protection Zone, the construction of the China-Southeast Asia bronze drum cultural corridor, and the goals for intangible cultural heritage.