Abstract:

Man-Land Relationship emerging in the process of rapid urbanization exerts an important influence on the distribution of the settlements, especially for Haitan Island having been the Hercynian construction comprehensive experimental area in 2009. Our study was based on a series of digitalized vector data, including the locations of settlements, land slopes, river networks and road networks obtained from remote sensing (RS) images of the county of Pingtan in Fujian Province for 2000, 2009 and 2013.Then we combined the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and RS spatial analysis techniques to quantitatively analyze the processes, patterns, and trends of spatial evolution in settlements. Finally, we explored landscape pattern indexes to examine in depth the factors influencing the distribution characteristics of settlements in the study area. Our results showed that: 1) In general, the rural residential areas were increased by 399.69 hm ² from 2000 to 2013, most of which were originally farmland and woodland, and the last 4 years (2009-2013) had a higher increment and growth rate. 2） Haitan Island of rural residential expansion had two major forms: one was patch massive expansion, that was, along the original patches spreading to the surroundings outwardly; second was strip extension , namely along the highway to the two sides or one side extension of villages and towns. 3）And there was significant clustering in the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Haitan island during 2000, 2009 and 2013; This settlement pattern was even more significant in 2013. However, there was no obvious change in the concentrated locations of clusters. 4） The presence of land slopes, rivers, and roads significantly influenced the distribution of settlements in Haitan island as evidenced by the following findings. More than 80% of settlements were located in areas with slopes of less than 10 degrees; over 75% of settlements were located in the landforms of flatlands, platforms and low hills; almost 80% of settlements were located within 1 500 m from a river network and almost 95% of settlements were located within 500 m from a road network.

Key words: settlements, rapid urbanization, spatial patterns, factors of influence, Haitan Island