IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0321646.html

Spatial patterns and influencing factors of traditional villages in the Pearl River–Xijiang River Economic Belt (PRXREB)

Author

Listed:
  • Meng Dai
  • Xiuli Huang
  • Yuanquan Xu
  • Zhibo Han

Abstract

The spatial patterns and influencing factors of traditional villages are critical for their preservation and heritage. This study employs spatial analysis and geostatistical methods to explore the spatial distribution of national traditional villages within the PRXREB as of 2023. The results indicate an uneven and clustered distribution, identifying four distinct clusters within the region. The analysis shows that most traditional villages are located near major rivers and roads, as well as in areas with slopes less than 10°. Importantly, the distribution of traditional villages in the PRXREB is shaped by the interplay of multiple factors rather than isolated individual factors, the complex interplay between natural factors and socio-economic conditions likely shapes the sustainable development of traditional villages by affecting long-term economic development path. Particularly, some traditional villages in Guangxi with challenging natural environments face risks due to population loss and inadequate transportation infrastructure. We find that the spatial distribution of traditional villages is significantly positively correlated with the spatial distribution of regional population and various economic indicators. The per capita disposable income of urban residents (PIUR) is the most influential factor, and economic development helps promote the protection and inheritance of traditional villages, but there are also regional differences. Based on these insights, we propose targeted recommendations to support the sustainable development and conservation of traditional villages in the PRXREB.

Suggested Citation

  • Meng Dai & Xiuli Huang & Yuanquan Xu & Zhibo Han, 2025. "Spatial patterns and influencing factors of traditional villages in the Pearl River–Xijiang River Economic Belt (PRXREB)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(4), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0321646
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321646
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321646
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321646&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0321646?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tong, De & Sun, Yiyu & Tang, Junqing & Luo, Zhenying & Lu, Jinfeng & Liu, Xuan, 2023. "Modeling the interaction of internal and external systems of rural settlements: The case of Guangdong, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Meyer-Aurich, Andreas, 2005. "Economic and environmental analysis of sustainable farming practices - a Bavarian case study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 190-206, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yu Zhang & Siang Duan & Li Dong & Xiaoming Ding, 2025. "Spatial Sustainability of Agricultural Rural Settlements: An Analysis of Rural Spatial Patterns and Influencing Factors in Three Northeastern Provinces of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-29, June.
    2. Janssen, Sander & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2007. "Assessing farm innovations and responses to policies: A review of bio-economic farm models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 622-636, June.
    3. Shamsheer Haq & Ismet Boz, 2020. "Measuring environmental, economic, and social sustainability index of tea farms in Rize Province, Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2545-2567, March.
    4. Guo, Yating & Rosland, Anitha & Ishak, Suryati & Muhammad Senan, Mohammad Khair Afham, 2023. "Public spending and natural resources development: A way toward green economic growth in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    5. Alluvione, Francesco & Moretti, Barbara & Sacco, Dario & Grignani, Carlo, 2011. "EUE (energy use efficiency) of cropping systems for a sustainable agriculture," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4468-4481.
    6. Uthes, Sandra & Sattler, Claudia & Zander, Peter & Piorr, Annette & Matzdorf, Bettina & Damgaard, Martin & Sahrbacher, Amanda & Schuler, Johannes & Kjeldsen, Chris & Heinrich, Uwe & Fischer, Holger, 2010. "Modeling a farm population to estimate on-farm compliance costs and environmental effects of a grassland extensification scheme at the regional scale," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(5), pages 282-293, June.
    7. Feng, Amei & Liu, Liqian, 2023. "Local green economic growth and natural resources development in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    8. Chaoqun Wang & Jie He, 2024. "Long-Term Evolution of Ecologically Fragile Waterside Rural Areas and Strategies for Local Spatial Planning: An Empirical Study in Baiyangdian, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-27, October.
    9. Qin He & Guochen Zhang & Jizhe Zhou & Xintong Zhao & Ruiqi Dong & Quanhua Hou, 2025. "Study on Spatial Adaptability of Tangjia Village in the Weibei Loess Plateau Gully Region Based on Diverse Social Relationships," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, June.
    10. Li, Na & Dilanchiev, Azer & Mustafa, Ghulam, 2023. "From oil and mineral extraction to renewable energy: Analyzing the efficiency of green technology innovation in the transformation of the oil and gas sector in the extractive industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    11. Jiang, Guanghui & Ji, Wenqin & Tian, Yaya & Luo, Yu & Ma, Wenqiu, 2025. "Compact and livable? Identifying and managing the relationships between intensive land use and urban livability: Evidence from 337 cities in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    12. Armand Kasztelan & Anna Nowak, 2020. "Construction and Empirical Verification of the Agri-Environmental Index (AEI) as a Tool for Assessing the Green Performance of Agriculture," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Andreas Meyer-Aurich & Yulia Lochmann & Hilde Klauss & Annette Prochnow, 2016. "Comparative Advantage of Maize- and Grass-Silage Based Feedstock for Biogas Production with Respect to Greenhouse Gas Mitigation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Aurbacher, Joachim & Dabbert, Stephan, 2011. "Generating crop sequences in land-use models using maximum entropy and Markov chains," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(6), pages 470-479, July.
    15. Xiaoxiao Wang & Huafu Zhao & Jiacheng Qian & Xiao Li & Congjie Cao & Zhe Feng & Yiqing Cui, 2024. "Sustainable Land Use Diagnosis Based on the Perspective of Coupling Socioeconomy and Ecology in the Xiongan New Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    16. Dong, Zhu & Shi, Hui, 2023. "Does natural resources efficiency provide roadmap for economic development in China? Evidence from econometric analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    17. Mann, S., . "Zur Wirkungsweise eines outputorientierten Agrarumweltprogramms," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 44.
    18. Simon Briner & Michael Hartmann & Robert Finger & Bernard Lehmann, 2012. "Greenhouse gas mitigation and offset options for suckler cow farms: an economic comparison for the Swiss case," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 337-355, April.
    19. Doole, Graeme J. & Kingwell, Ross, 2015. "Efficient economic and environmental management of pastoral systems: Theory and application," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 73-84.
    20. Yuanjun Zhao & Hongxin Yu & Chunjia Han & Brij B. Gupta, 2025. "Analysis of the impact of social network financing based on deep learning and long short-term memory," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 261-277, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0321646. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.