Study on environmental adaptability of prehistoric settlements in the Northern of Jianghan Plain, China

The northern part of the Jianghan Plain is at the intersection of lacustrine and marshy plains and mountain foothills, and the distribution of prehistoric settlements is obviously influenced by the natural environment. Data such as digital surface models of settlement sites obtained by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography and 3D reconstruction can be used to extract the microgeomorphic features of prehistoric settlement sites, analyze their formation processes, and find that the distribution of prehistoric settlements is significantly influenced by the natural environment. The ways in which prehistoric ancestors knew and transformed the natural environment and the human–land relationship should be revealed, and issues such as the mechanism of water control and the environmental adaptability of prehistoric settlements should be raised. This study reveals that prehistoric people in the northern part of the Jianghan Plain mastered rice cultivation and farmland irrigation techniques. They continuously expanded the construction of water conservancy facilities and the scale of rice planting, leading to a steady increase in grain production. This, in turn, promoted the social division of labor, class differentiation, and the birth and development of prehistoric civilization. It provides a series of typical Chinese case for the study of the formation and development of early civilizations in the major river basins at 30° north latitude.