An Empirical Study on the Relationship Between Spatial Layout Patterns of Rural Residential Communities and Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Northern Jiangsu

Under the ‘dual carbon’ goals, low-carbon planning in rural areas has become a key priority. To elucidate the mechanisms through which the spatial form of rural communities influences carbon emissions, this paper examines three types of rural residential communities in the Northern Jiangsu Plain—newly concentrated, largely dispersed with small clusters, and contiguous clusters—analysing their relationship with carbon emissions from daily living and transport across two dimensions: residential layout and road transport patterns. The results indicate that the overall scale of the community is the dominant factor influencing carbon emissions. Spatial compactness has not yet surpassed the scale threshold, and a positive correlation remains evident, whereby a larger scale correlates with higher carbon emissions. The carbon emission characteristics of the three community types differ significantly: large-scale dispersed communities and small-scale clustered communities, characterised by low-rise, dispersed layouts; mixed-use development; and diverse energy sources, exhibit low domestic carbon emissions and high transport carbon emissions, resulting in the lowest total emissions. Newly developed concentrated communities, characterised by high-rise, high-density, urban-like forms, exhibit high domestic carbon emissions and low transport emissions, resulting in the highest total emissions, though these are still lower than those of comparable urban communities. Contiguous concentrated communities, meanwhile, exhibit moderate emissions. The study concludes that low-carbon development in rural areas must be based on a morphological foundation of low-rise buildings, integrated industry and residential areas, and concentrated facilities while avoiding blind expansion and simple replication of urban-style concentrated residential forms.