PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 655-666.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2018.05.009

• Methods Applying • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Rurality spatial differentiation mechanism in the new era based on the perspective of spatial interface:A case study of Gongyi City, Henan Province

Dong HAN(), Jiajun QIAO*(), Yuling MA   

  1. College of Environment and Planning, Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Research Center of Regional Development and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, Henan, China
  • Received:2017-10-09 Revised:2018-01-23 Online:2018-05-28 Published:2018-05-28
  • Contact: Jiajun QIAO E-mail:hanaca@163.com;jjqiao@henu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 41671172, No. 41601178;The MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities, No.14JJD790011

Abstract:

In the new century, the countryside of China is experiencing a new and vigorous process of transformation and reconstruction and the spatial differentiation of rurality in rural areas can be seen as the concrete manifestation of the process of rural transformation and reconstruction in local areas. Also in this period, rural development has become more pluralistic and more externally dependent and the driving factors are more pluralistic as well. Therefore, a more comprehensive and systematic spatial interface perspective was applied to explore the spatial differentiation of rurality in village areas, which provides a new perspective for the study of rural development in the new era. In this study, we used the rurality index to analyze the spatial differentiation of rurality at the village scale in Gongyi City, Henan Province, China. Next, we quantitatively determined the location of spatial interfaces in Gongyi using the moving split-window technique. Finally, we used a geographical detector technique to assess the mechanisms that influenced the spatial differentiation of rurality at the village scale in Gongyi. Our results show the following: (1) The spatial interface of Gongyi can be divided into natural and human categories. The most important natural interfaces include terrain and natural resources, and the human interfaces include agricultural production, residential, administrative division, and traffic. (2) The distribution of rurality at the village scale in Gongyi showed strong positive spatial autocorrelation. The number of the strong rurality and extremely strong rurality villages was relatively small. The strong rurality and extremely strong rurality villages were mainly distributed in the southern and northwestern regions of Gongyi City. Intermediate rurality villages were mainly distributed in the southwestern, southeastern, and eastern regions of Gongyi City. The weak rurality and extremely weak rurality villages were mainly distributed around the urban region and the two port towns in the west and east of the city. On the whole, spatial agglomeration was evident and it was strong in the periphery and weak in the middle area. (3) Under the influence of the multiple effects of the spatial interfaces, the elements in the county space of Gongyi were reorganized to promote the formation of rurality spatial differentiation. The traffic, administrative division, and residential interfaces strongly affected rurality spatial differentiation, while the natural interfaces played a less important role.

Key words: spatial interface, rurality, spatial differentiation mechanism, village scale, Gongyi City, Henan