Analysis on the geographical pattern and driving force of traditional villages based on GIS and Geodetector - A case study of Guizhou
Authors: WU Kehua , SU Weici , YE Shi'an , LI Wei , CAO Yang , JIA Zhenzhen 
Published: March 2023

The protection and utilization of traditional villages have received widespread attention from all walks of life and have become an essential grip of the current rural revitalization strategy. This paper takes 724 traditional villages in Guizhou recognized by relevant national ministries and commissions as the research objects, uses spatial analysis and geographic probes to characterize the spatial distribution of traditional villages and reveal the distribution patterns in different natural and humanistic environments, and quantitatively detects the dominant factors of spatial differentiation of traditional villages and their driving forces from a microscopic perspective. The results show that: (1) traditional villages, in general, are highly clustered locally, forming hotspots with high first place in some districts and counties of Qiandongnan, Anshun and Qiannan, and more than 90% of the villages have significant edge effects and spatial distribution characteristics of crossing the boundaries of 2-4 county administrative units. (2) 98.07% of the villages are distributed in the range of 250-1500m above sea level. There is a significant negative spatial correlation between the elevation and longitude of the villages; their surface undulation is generally higher than the average level of natural villages in the province, 76.24% of the villages are concentrated in the slope of 8°-24°, the characteristics of sunwardness and waterfront are obvious, the number and aggregation degree of clastic rock areas are significantly higher than those of carbonate rock areas, the buffer zone of 1500m along the fault line controls more than half of the number of villages, which are mostly extended in the northeast-southwest direction. 99.17% of the villages are distributed in areas with high physical comfort, and the overall level of vegetation index is high. (3) Traditional villages are more distributed in the gathering places of Miao, Dong, Buyi, Shui, Tujia and Gelao ethnic minorities, and have significant spatial correspondence with the degree of minority language use, the type and number of Intangible Cultural Heritage resources, the distribution of rice fields, the lower GDP level of regions such as Qiandongnan, and the years of female education. (4) Different substrate environments result in significant spatial heterogeneity in village spatial density, clustering, surface undulation, sunwardness and waterfront. (5) The geographic pattern of traditional villages is mainly affected by the closest distance to river valleys (x7), the types and number of provincial-level Intangible Cultural Heritage resource in the county (x26, x27, x28), river gorge density (x6), edge effect index (x18, x19), degree of county ethnic language use (x25), and proportion of paddy fields to the regional area (x14) and their combined effects influence and control. Through the detection of the mechanism of the distribution process of traditional villages in Guizhou, it helps to further clarify the reciprocal feedbacks mechanism between traditional villages and natural, human elements in the mountain ecosystem, and provides theoretical reference and reference for the conservation and sustainable use of villages as well as the scientific exploration of human-land relationship issues in the mountainous areas of Southwest China.