Abstract:

With the proposing of the Rural Revitalization Strategy, rural development has become a key part of the country’s overall development. However, in China’s less developed areas, most traditional villages still have problems such as delayed development, chaotic settlement structure and fragile ecological environment, which are the key problems to be solved in rural development. Based on the remote sensing images of 1980, 1990, 2008 and 2020, this paper took Dashuikou village in Ningwu County of northwest Shanxi Province as the research object, established a database and analyzed the village’s landscape change characteristics in the past 40 years by using methods of participant observation and GIS spatial analysis, and the study will provide reference for the traditional rural development in Shanxi Province and even the whole country. The main results showed that: (1) the scale of private space of the settlements gradually increased in the past 40 year, and so did the patch number and patch area, the shape character gradually became simple, and the boundary shape was more regular; (2) the agricultural production land in the production space of the settlements was reduced, which was mainly converted into woodland and residential land, and the increase of industrial and mining land mainly occupied agricultural land; (3) the public space did not developed with the development of the settlements; instead, its layout was gradually decreased and abandoned; only some infrastructures were improved slightly. This study is expected to provide more detailed information and a theoretical basis for future village planning and management.

Key words: mountainous area of northwest Shanxi, traditional village, settlement change, Dashuikou village