Investigating spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of traditional villages in the Yellow River Basin from the perspective of human–land relationship

Traditional villages record long-term interactions between settlement activities and environmental conditions. The Yellow River Basin-related regions provide a useful setting for examining these interactions because they include marked geomorphological gradients, river constraints, long settlement histories, and dense cultural heritage resources. Using 2,022 traditional village points from nine provincial-level regions, this study combined the Nearest Neighbor Index, DBSCAN, Kernel Density Estimation, cultural-type stratification, and Geodetector to examine spatial clustering and associated human–land factors. The villages showed a statistically significant clustered distribution, with a nearest neighbor ratio of 0.299161, a z-score of -61.162528, and p < 0.001 (reported as 0 by ArcGIS). DBSCAN identified seven regional-scale clusters and 166 noise points under MinPts = 24 and Eps = 100 km; relatively high-density areas were concentrated in the middle and lower Yellow River-related regions. Geodetector results showed that national key cultural relic protection units had the largest q-value among the selected variables ( q = 0.1755 ), followed by slope ( q = 0.0536 ), intangible cultural heritage items ( q = 0.0320 ), transportation network density ( q = 0.0238 ), and river network density ( q = 0.0229 ). These findings provide spatial references for conservation prioritization and differentiated heritage governance. The statistical associations should not be interpreted as evidence of historical causality, settlement typology, or tourism-development effects.