Spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of traditional villages: the Yellow River Basin in Henan Province, China

Henan Province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization and one of the earliest human settlements, which means that the area has an important national cultural heritage. Traditional villages are an important facet of this cultural heritage, and studying their spatiotemporal characteristics in different periods has important theoretical and practical significance for the sustainable development and protection of cultural heritage in the region. This paper takes the traditional villages of the Yellow River basin in Henan Province that were formed before 1919 as the research object. Information on the ancient river was obtained through a literature search as well as via field research, and the important tributaries of the Yellow River in different periods were mapped using ArcGIS 10.0 software. The nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse and other methods were adopted to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of the traditional villages. The factors that influenced the evolution of traditional villages were explored in depth by combining changes in the course of the river and water conservancy projects. The results show that the formation of traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province has experienced a historical track of growth, contraction, growth and prosperity and stability. The traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province generally show a clustered pattern, forming a dense concentration of traditional villages in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The center of gravity shows a migration trend from southeast to northwest. In terms of influencing factors, the spatiotemporal evolution of the relationship between villages and their distance to water is closely related to climatic fluctuations, changes in channel, water conservancy projects and social and cultural factors. This paper deepens our understanding of the relationship between traditional village evolution and watersheds by improving the consistency between village spatial distribution and historical geography and provides a useful theoretical reference for the sustainable development of China's traditional villages.

Automated summary

Henan Province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization and has important national cultural heritage in the form of traditional villages. This study focuses on the traditional villages in the Yellow River basin in Henan Province that formed before 1919. By analyzing the spatiotemporal characteristics of these villages and exploring the factors that influenced their evolution, the study provides a theoretical reference for the sustainable development of China's traditional villages. The results show that the formation of traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province has experienced historical changes and the spatial distribution of these villages is closely related to climatic fluctuations, changes in the river channel, water conservancy projects, and social and cultural factors.