Spatiotemporal Perception:An Analysis of Suburban Settlement Space in Northwest Beijing Based on Historical Geographic Information
With the progress in urbanization,the living places,production methods and ecological landscapes in suburban settlements continue to evolve while introducing changes in their spatial utilization patterns.In particular,rich historical and cultural factors have been formed upon accumulation of suburban settlements under the diversified elements in urban and rural environments over time.This not only promotes the spreading of built-up areas,but also supports the integration with the built-up environment.The spatial evolution of suburban settlements has become an essential basis for exploring the contemporary development of settlements.However,existing studies often regard them as separate individuals,and pay insufficient attention to their spatial and temporal environments.Research on regional balance and global interaction still has to be perfected.A case study based on the northwest suburb of Beijing was carried out in this study.The study area includes National Historical and Cultural City,which spatially connects central city with the"Yongding River Cultural Belt in the Xishan Mountains".It previously connected the old capital city and the area of three mountains and five gardens.To integrate the expanding built-up area and the historical built-up environment,the regional settlement development shows typical regional and era characteristics.It is vital to study the settlement development mode under spatial and temporal perceptions.With respect to methodology,relevant graphic data of each period was collected and summarized for digital translation according to data classification requirements of ArcGIS.In this way,the historical geographic information platform was built and the database of settlement development in the northwest suburbs of Beijing was formed.The historical development layers of settlements in the study area were reviewed from the perspective of temporal and spatial perceptions by using historical geographic information method,which recognized elements related to settlement development,explored correlation features between regional elements and settlements and determined resource values of diversified historical and cultural elements.On the analysis layer,layout features of settlements in the study area in term of rural systems and element interaction were investigated by using the"position-size"model and the nearest-distance method based on the"core-edge"theory.Settlements in the study area were found to have development characteristics of urban-rural integration,central attraction and diversified symbiosis.Moreover,variation trends from coupling to correlation,geo-correlation to industry-correlation and corridor to factor pulling in three spatial layers(urban-rural interaction in the whole region,rural interaction in a district and village-village connectivity in a corridor)were presented.This study revealed the spatial characteristics of settlements in northwest suburb of Beijing and investigated the development patterns of global settlement correlation in the study area,industrial structural layout and village-based spatial organization by building a preliminary historical geographic information platform.The results could provide important references for planning of spatial structure and function layout in northwest suburb of Beijing in future.It could also guide development path of settlements according to local conditions,aiming to further facilitate general function organization and industrial layout of regional settlements as well as historical protection and spatial utilization of regional settlements.Besides,the use of geographic information technology builds a potential application platform for review of historical resources and connection with territorial spatial planning in northwest suburb of Beijing.They can increase the values of multi-dimensional control and resources of elements in urban-rural development while facilitating the high-quality development of urban-rural settlements.
regional culturenorthwest suburb of Beijinghistorical geographic informationsettlement heritageurban-rural development history