Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Influence Factors of Rural Settlement Heritage in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu Section)

The construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt represents a strategic initiative for the high-quality development of the region, spearheaded by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. These authorities have formulated a series of long-term strategic plans for the Belt's development. Among the strategic plans is the Outline of the Plan for the Protection, Inheritance and Utilisation of the Grand Canal Culture. This plan governs the protection, inheritance and utilisation of the culture of the Grand Canal. It states that the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt should begin with the strengthening of the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage. It also promotes the integration and coordination of urban and rural areas. It particularly emphasises the protection and display of key ancient villages and towns in the core area that are closely related to the culture of the Grand Canal. In addition, the document emphasizes the need to strengthen basic research on the culture of the Grand Canal, so as to identify the shape of the Grand Canal, trace its origins, examine the changes in the present day, and investigate the causes of the Grand Canal, so as to provide comprehensive and detailed physical evidence to substantiate the historical value of the Grand Canal, and to provide solid research support for the protection of the Grand Canal.The canal is an engineered waterway dug by hand, and it is a north-south river that crosses and converges with many natural rivers, and these two characteristics determine that the Grand Canal has a stronger humanistic significance and cultural and economic strategic value[1]. It has a certain influence on the cultural exchanges, economic activities, production and life of the rural settlements along its route, which makes it have a long and unique historical and cultural characteristics of the canal.Therefore, the conservation and development of the heritage of rural settlements along the canal is one of the priorities of the conservation and development of the cultural heritage of the Grand Canal.From the perspective of canal village heritage research, while there have been some studies conducted on the fundamental aspects of this field, including the protection and advancement of villages situated along the Grand Canal, there is still a significant scope for further research. This pertains to the examination of the interconnection between the canal and the villages, as well as the investigation of the impact of the canal on the villages throughout the evolution of rural village heritage along the canal.

At present, there are some research results on the heritage of rural settlements in the Grand Canal cultural belt in China, involving most of the areas through which the Grand Canal flows. On the overall spatial area, Nie Yantao and Shi Shaohua researched the spatial distribution characteristics of 357 national traditional villages along the Grand Canal and analyzed and summarized the two influencing factors of the topographic elevation and slope direction; on the segmental spatial area[2]; Cheng Zhifen, Zhao Zhen, Zhang Man, and Zhang Yiran taking the villages along the canal in the Beijing section, especially in the Tongzhou section, as the research object, they analyzed the villagers' cognition and recognition of the canal culture[3], the relationship between the situation of the village's stripped transportation and the water environment changes[4], and the spatial distribution and morphological characteristics and patterns of the villages respectively[5,6]; Wu Xin, Wang Yue, and Song Feng et al. Taking the settlements along the Shandong section of the Grand Canal as the research object, they explored the influence of the clan society on the composition and transformation of the settlements[7], the village landscape system[8]and the characteristics[9], respectively. Zhou Bingfeng and Li Yongle took the cultural heritage of the settlements along the Grand Canal Cultural Belt in Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the research object. The former analyzed the spatial differentiation characteristics of the settlements based on the framework of “towns-villages-historic districts”, and explored the influencing factors of nature, society and humanities, and the canal basin[10],while the latter, through research, has been able to analyze the distribution patterns of the cultural heritage of the settlements[11].By focusing on the historical and cultural towns along the Grand Canal (Jiangsu section), Wu et al. have revealed their main lines of evolution, characteristic laws and motivating mechanisms[12].On the whole, although there have been some research results on the rural settlement heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, Jiangsu Province, as one of the important subjects for promoting the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal culture in our country, has relatively few results on the rural settlement heritage within the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal, and most of them are studies of individual villages. Therefore, this paper attempts to conduct a regional-scale spatial distribution study of the canal elements as the key spatial correlates of the rural community heritage along the route through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, with a view to providing scientific data support and concluding suggestions for the basic research and protection and development of the rural community heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section).

2

Subjects, Methodology and Data Sources

1)

Subjects.The Plan for the Protection and Inheritance of the Cultural Heritage of the Grand Canal in Jiangsu Province (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”)defines the administrative area of Jiangsu Province as the geospatial scope of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu Section), and based on this scope, a total of 249 settlements were selected and recognized as the settlement heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu Section), including some famous cities, towns, villages, neighborhoods, traditional villages, and other ancient towns and villages. Based on the list of clustered heritage listed in the Heritage in the Plan, from which non-rural clusters were eliminated, a total of 111 clustered heritage in the rural category was finally obtained as the research sample for this paper.

2)

Methods.

(1)

Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN).The nearest neighbour index can be used to reflect the spatial distribution pattern of point elements. The distribution status can be divided into three types: agglomeration distribution, random distribution and uniform distribution. The resulting index indicates the degree of spatial aggregation of point elements by calculating the ratio of the actual observed average closest neighbour distance to the theoretically estimated average closest neighbour distance. (1) $E = \bar{r_{1}} / \bar{r_{E}} = 2 D$ (2) $\bar{r_{E}} = 1 / 2 \sqrt{n / A} = 1 / 2 \sqrt{D}$

In the formula, ^E is the nearest neighbor index; $\bar{r_{1}}$ is the actual average nearest neighbor distance between point elements; $\bar{r_{E}}$ is the theoretical average nearest neighbor distance between point elements; ^D is the point density; ⁿ is the number of villages; ^A is the total area of the study area. When ^{E = 1}, it can be interpreted that the point distribution is random; when ^{E > 1}, the point elements tend to be uniformly distributed; when ^{E < 1}, the point elements tend to be agglomerated.

(2)

Kernel Density Analysis.Kernel Density Analysis can reflect the density of spatial distribution of villages and hot spots. A higher value of kernel density indicates a greater degree of aggregation of villages in the region. (3) $f (x) = \frac{1}{n h} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} k (\frac{x - X_{i}}{h})$

In the formula, ^X_i denotes the geographic coordinates of the ith (i=1,2,..., n) point; ⁿ is the number of villages; ^h is the bandwidth of the kernel density function. The shape and range of values of the kernel function are closely related to the number of selected geographic element points and the utilization procedure, and the accuracy of the kernel density analysis depends on the selection of the kernel function and the bandwidth h.

(3)

Data Sources and Processing.The research objects in this paper are selected from the Plan, whose geographic coordinate information is obtained with the help of Baidu Map API pickup coordinate system, and the information of the Grand Canal water body is obtained from the table of the Grand Canal river channel remains in Jiangsu Province in the Plan investigation and research report, and the basic spatial database of village settlement heritage of Grand Canal Culture Belt (Jiangsu) section is formed through the integration of the above information. By integrating the above information, a basic spatial database of rural settlement heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) is formed. The coordinate system of each data layer is unified in ArcGis 10.8, and the spatial geographic coordinate system is set as GCS_WGS_1984, and the projected coordinate system is set as WGS1984_UTM_Zone_50N.

3

Spatial Distribution Characteristics

1)

Overall spatial distribution characteristics.

(1)

Distribution type.The spatial distribution types of 111 village settlements of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) were summarized by analyzing the spatial clustering characteristics of the elements of their heritage sites. Using 'the Nearest Neighbor Analysis tool of ArcGis to calculate and analyze the 111 villages(Table 1), the results show that the average theoretical closest neighbor distance of the rural settlement heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) is 15906.16 m, and the actual closest neighbor distance distance is 11603.45 m. The index of closest neighbor points is 0.729<1, and the p-value is 0.000, which means that it passes the confidence level test. Therefore, the overall spatial distribution type of rural settlement heritage in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) is agglomeration distribution. Table 1.

Analysis of the nearest neighbor index of Rural Settlement Heritage

The Nearest Neighbor Index	Theoretical Average Nearest Neighbor Distance(m)
0.729	15906.16
Actual Average Nearest Distance(m)	Z-value	P-value
11603.45	-5.452	0.000

(2)

Distribution pattern.According to the spatial distribution map of rural settlement heritage in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) (Figure 1), the Jiangnan Canal area has the richest number of rural settlements, with a total of 72 villages, representing 64.86% of the total; the Huaiyang Canal area has the second highest number of rural settlements, with a total of 27 villages, representing 24.32% of the total; and the Middle Canal area has the lowest number of villages, with only 12 villages, representing 10.81%.Further combined with the spatial distribution map of rural settlement heritage in each canal zone and the analysis of core density (Figure 2), there are three aggregation cores with a relatively high degree of aggregation in the Jiangnan Canal Zone, among which, the East and West Mountain Island area of Suzhou City is the aggregation core with the highest density of rural settlement heritage, followed by a secondary aggregation core in the area near the Yangtze River on the northeast side of Zhenjiang City, and then an aggregation core on the south side of Nanjing City; In the Huaiyang Canal Area, there exists an aggregation core with a relatively high density value in the middle of Taizhou City, and two other aggregation cores with lower density values in the junction of Yangzhou, Yancheng, Taizhou and Nantong City, respectively; while the number of villages in the Mid Canal Area is small, but mainly concentrated in the middle of Xuzhou City.

2)

Characteristics of spatial distribution along the canal.According to the Plan and its investigation and research report, the canal river system in Jiangsu Province mainly includes 5 main stem of the canals, 15 important tributaries and 11 other tributaries. Statistically (Figure 3), most villages tend to be distributed near the important tributaries of the canal, with a number of 70 (63.06%); followed by 23 (20.72%) villages near the lakes' water bodies; 11 (9.91%) villages near the main stem of the canal; and 7 (6.31%) villages near the other tributaries of the canal.

Euclidean metric analysis was used to measure the spatial distances of the study objects to different classes of canal waterways respectively, to analyze the trend of the distribution of the distance of the rural settlement heritage from the canals, and to produce a distance distribution trend graph in excel.

According to the trend map of the distance of rural settlement heritage from the canal (Figure 4), it can be seen that the rural settlement heritage of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) has an overall trend of distribution along the canal: the slopes of the image curves are roughly from large to small, i.e., the percentage of villages in the vicinity of the canal increases more rapidly than the number of villages at greater distances from the canal. Conversely, the number of villages decreases with the distance of the rural settlement heritage from the canal. And there are two more obvious turning points in the trend graph, at about 2.5km and 9.6km respectively. That is to say, in the range of 2.5km from the canal, the distribution trend of rural settlement heritage along the transportation is very obvious, and there are 46 (41.44%) villages distributed in this range; in the range of 2.5km to 9.6km from the canal, a discernible pattern can be observed in the distribution of rural settlement heritage along transportation routes. However, this trend is not as pronounced as it once was, with 40 villages situated within this range, representing 77.48% of the total number. The remaining 25 villages (22.52%) are distributed along transportation routes. The remaining 25 villages (22.52%) are located beyond 9.6km from the canal, and the trend along the canal is less obvious.

According to the Plan, the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal can be categorized into four types, namely, the main stem of the canal, important tributaries of the canal, other tributaries of the canal, and lake water bodies.As the functions of different grades of canal water bodies are different, and the economic and cultural activities they carry are not the same, the distribution characteristics of villages along different grades of canal water bodies are also distinctive. Further statistics on the distances from the rural settlements to the water bodies of different levels of canals show that the distribution trend of villages near the lake is the most significant, and that the distribution trend along the tributaries of the canal is stronger than that along the main stem of the canal, of which the distribution trend along the other tributaries is stronger than the distribution trend along the important tributaries.

(1)

Significant tendency for villages to be distributed near the lake.By statistically analyzing the distance of village settlements along the lake water body from its heritage (Figure 5), it can be found that the slope of the trend graph is large and gradually becomes smaller as the distance becomes larger, that is, the villages have a strong tendency to be distributed near the lake. Overall, the vast majority of villages are distributed within 5km of a lake water body. Specifically, there are two more obvious turning points in Figure 6, which are about 0.8km and 2km away from the lake water body. Among them, about 56.5% of the villages were distributed within 0.8km and 82.6% within 2km of the lake water body, both of which have a significant trend of near-lake distribution.

(2)

Stronger tendency for villages to be distributed along other tributaries of the canal.Although the number of villages along other tributaries of the canal is small, there is a strong trend of distribution along the canal in general. By analyzing the distribution trend map of rural settlement heritage along other tributaries of the canal (Figure 6), it can be seen that 71.4% of the villages are distributed within about 1.5km along other tributaries of the canal, while the slope of the trend line along the canal is large and overall decreases with the distance, so it can be concluded that these villages have a stronger tendency to be distributed along other tributaries of the canal.

(3)

Medium trend in distribution of villages along important tributaries of the canal.By comparing with Figures 5 and 6, as a whole, the slope of the along-transit trend line of villages along the important tributaries of the canal is smaller (Figure 7), i.e., the along- transit trend is weaker than the previous two. However, at the same time, the slope in the trend graph gradually decreases as the distance from the important tributaries of the canal increases, and the number of villages also decreases as the distance increases, so there is a certain trend of along-transport distribution of these villages in general. Further analyzing Figure 7, it can be found that there are two relatively obvious turning points at about 2.5km and 9.6km from the important tributaries of the canal, respectively. About 25.2% of the villages are distributed within 2.5km of the important direct current of the canal, and the trend of villages along the canal in this range is relatively strong in this category. About 77.1% of the villages are distributed within 27.5km to 64.1km from the important tributaries, and the distribution trend along the transportation is weaker than that of the first 27.5km. The remaining 6 villages are distributed beyond 64.1km from the important tributaries, and the trend of distribution along the canal is not obvious.

(4)

Weak tendency for villages to be distributed along the main stem of the canal.In Figure 8, there are two main turning points, which are about 0.3km and 4.4km away from the main stem of the canal. Although the three villages within 0.3km are very close to the main stem of the canal, except for the villages between 0.3km and 4.4km from the main stem of the canal, which have a certain distribution trend that decreases with distance, the distribution trend of the villages within 0.3km and beyond 4.4km do not have a smaller distribution trend with the increase of distance, therefore, overall, the trend of the villages along the main stem of the canal along the transportation is weak.

4

Influential Factors on the Spatial Distribution

1)

Distribution of villages near the lake: existence of productive life advantages.Since lake water bodies are better able to meet the needs of village production and life, there is a strong tendency for villages to be distributed along them. Among the villages distributed near lakes, the largest number of villages are found within the Taihu Lake basin, with a small number of villages distributed near Gaoyou Lake, Hongze Lake, Shishu Lake, and Weishan Lake. The heritage of village settlements within the Taihu Lake basin is mainly distributed in the East and West Mountain Islands - the topography and terrain of the region is complex, and the islands and the low hills along the lake are the base for subtropical economic forests and temperate fruit tree cultivation, so due to the limitations of the topography and out of the considerations of the needs of production and life, the villages in this region are relatively close to the Taihu Lake, forming a obvious distribution characteristics near the lake, thus forming a village in the overall trend of significant distribution characteristics near the lake.

2)

Distribution of villages along other tributaries of the canal: high dependence on water transportation.Because of the high dependence on water transportation, villages along other tributaries of the canal have a stronger tendency to be distributed along the canal. Among the other tributaries of the Canal, the villages near the Canal Salt River in Nantong have the largest distribution, and they are all relatively close to it. At the beginning of Nantong's establishment, most of the residents in the area used to cook salt for their business, while Yuxi was the first salt port on the south-east coast of ancient Tongzhou, and Shigang Town, where Guangjiqiao township is located, was also one of the seven salt farms in Tongzhou during the period from the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. In order to transport large quantities of salt to the capital, in the fifth year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1269), Li Tingzhi, governor of Yangzhou and head of the Huaidong system, ordered the digging of a 40-mile-long salt canal in Tongzhou (then under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou), which connected several major salt pavilions, including the Yuxi field in Tongzhou, reducing the labour intensity of the people working at the pans and improving the efficiency of salt transport. Yuxi Village, Guangjiqiao Community, Sijiaba and other rural settlement heritage all have a close relationship with the Salt Canal in history - the Salt Canal frequently transported sea salt for the villages, and the transportation benefits were significant, so most of these villages are characterized by spatial distribution near the river, with a strong tendency to follow the transportation.

3)

Distribution of villages along important tributaries of canals: a comprehensive consideration of security needs.The medium trend of distribution of villages along the important tributaries of the canal is mainly due to two reasons. First, it is due to the consideration of production and living needs. The villages near the important tributaries of the canal either introduce canal water into their farmland for irrigation through ditches, or directly utilize the rich small-scale water system near the important tributaries of the canal for irrigation of farmland and domestic water, so the important tributaries of the canal themselves are not very attractive to the villages for their production and living needs. Secondly, it is due to the consideration of the security needs of the settlement. Most of the important tributaries of the Canal are water systems with strong comprehensive benefits. Take the Xu River, Rouge River, Meng River, Wuxi Yellow River, and Taidong River, for example, which have the most villages along the route, as they have the functions of flood control and drainage, water diversion and irrigation, transportation and shipping, and other comprehensive water conservancy and water transportation services. Since these water systems are all important flood discharge channels in their regions, the scale of flood discharge is large, and the terrain of the villages is low, so in order to avoid the direct impact of floods as much as possible and to reduce the risk of floods, the location and growth direction of the villages are a certain distance away from the important water systems of the canals, and therefore the trend along the transportation is not strong.

4)

Distribution of villages along the main stem of the canal: lack of direct functional connection.The number of villages closest to the main stem of the canal is relatively small. Among them, Zhang Guandu, Pihu Community and Puxin Village have a strong tendency to follow the canal and have a direct transportation relationship with the canal, and have been an important official ferry, a major canal town and a salt transportation center in history; the rest of the villages do not have a direct transportation relationship with the canal and are located in the areas rich in water resources that can satisfy the needs of production and life, so that the canal does not play an obvious role in their formation and development. Therefore, on the whole, the villages located near the main stem of the canal have a weaker tendency to follow the canal.

5

Conclusion

The heritage of rural settlements in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu section) represents a significant material space for cultural exchanges, economic activities, and production and life along the canal. These settlements serve as important sites for the preservation of cultural genes that are of great significance to the Chinese nation and the cultural lineage of the canal. The protection of traditional villages and the cultural heritage of the Grand Canal requires an understanding of their historical interactions with the canal, both spatially and culturally. In this paper, through studying the spatial distribution characteristics of the rural community heritage and its influencing factors, we have initially explored the role of the canal in the formation and development of the villages along the route, and explored the historical veins of the villages that bear the imprint of the canal, in an attempt to provide some spatial clues and cultural clues for the protection of the canal characteristics of the villages.

This paper firstly analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics of the rural settlement heritage based on ArcGis10.8, and finds that the villages as a whole present the spatial distribution type of agglomeration distribution as well as the spatial distribution pattern that they are mainly clustered in the Jiangnan Canal Area. Then the spatial distribution characteristics of villages along different levels of canals are analyzed with canals as the key spatial elements. Ultimately, an analysis of the actual situation of the villages along the canals of varying levels, an investigation of the principal functions performed by the canal water bodies throughout their formation and development, and a synthesis of the corresponding influencing factors of the spatial distribution characteristics of the various types, i.e., the inherent advantages of production and life, result in a pronounced tendency towards distribution. The villages situated in close proximity to the lakes and their surrounding areas can be protected in order to preserve the traditional agricultural, forestry and fishing practices that have been established over time. The high dependence on water transportation has resulted in a strong distribution trend and close proximity of villages along other tributaries of the canal. In order to protect these villages, it is necessary to focus on The establishment of specific water-based economic transportation systems represents a crucial aspect of the protection strategy. The integration of security considerations results in a medium distribution pattern of villages along the significant tributaries of the canal. The protection of these villages should prioritise the safeguarding of the ecological environment and the implementation of measures to enhance ecological security, primarily through river training and afforestation. The lack of direct functional connection leads to a weak distribution trend of villages along the main stems of the canal and a longer distance, so the protection of these villages can emphasize the radiation influence of the canal culture.

Langue:: Anglais

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Sujets de la revue:: Sciences de la vie, Sciences de la vie, autres, Mathématiques, Mathématiques appliquées, Mathématiques générales, Physique, Physique, autres

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Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Influence Factors of Rural Settlement Heritage in the Grand Canal Cultural Belt (Jiangsu Section)

Huiwen Quan

Publié en ligne: 27 févr. 2025

Reçu: 14 oct. 2024

Accepté: 16 janv. 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0145

Mots clésrural settlement heritage, spatial distribution, Grand Canal Cultural Belt, Influencing factors, Jiangsu section

© 2025 Huiwen Quan, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
rural settlement heritage, spatial distribution, Grand Canal Cultural Belt, Influencing factors, Jiangsu section