PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2019, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (9): 1340-1348.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2019.09.007

• Types and Functions of Rural Revitalization • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Village type identification and rural revitalization strategy: A case study of Zhangzi County of Shanxi Province

QIAO Luyin   

  1. Institute of Urban-Rural Development, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
  • Received:2019-04-26 Revised:2019-07-03 Online:2019-09-28 Published:2019-09-25
  • Supported by:
    Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41701195);The Constructing Plan for Key Innovation Team of Shanxi 1331 Project

Abstract:

China's rural revitalization strategy is a long-term strategic deployment for agricultural and rural modernization by 2050. Given the differences of villages and the divergence of their development trends, it is important to identify village types scientifically and clarify their development directions in order to make sound rural revitalization plans and take differential measures. The village scale is a basic scale for implementing rural revitalization. However, limited by the lack of micro-scale statistical data and basic information, it is urgent to build a scientific, simple, and usable methodological framework for identifying village types. This study integrated geographic data and rural land use data to construct a village type identification system. Then natural factors, revitalize potential, development situation, and resource endowment were examined in turn to identify village types of Zhangzi County, Shanxi Province. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Natural factors limit the basic pattern and direction of change of villages, location determines the development potential and transformation capability, and both play a decisive role in the evolution and revitalization of villages. 2) From the perspective of farmers, whether the location efficiency of a village is compatible to farmers' production and living needs and livelihood style determines whether a change takes place in the location of residence of farmers, and this trend can be reflected by idle and abandoned homesteads. 3) The villages of Zhangzi County can be divided into five types, including urban-suburban integration, agglomeration for improvement, traditional agricultural, protection due to special characteristics, and relocation and merging types. Combining with different modes of rural revitalization, corresponding development paths are proposed accordingly to provide a theoretical basis and decision references for differentiated rural revitalization strategies.

Key words: rural revitalization, village type identification, natural factors, vacant homestead, revitalization strategy, resource-based areas, Zhangzi County of Shanxi Province