Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Traditional Village Distribution in China

Understanding the characteristics of the traditional village distribution contributes to the formulation of relevant protection and development strategies. We adopted a series of spatial analysis methods to investigate the characteristics of the traditional village distribution in China by using the watershed as the research unit. Moreover, we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of the relevant influencing factors affecting the distribution pattern using Geodetector and mathematical statistics. The findings indicate that traditional villages are distributed unevenly across watershed units. High–High clusters tend to occur at the boundaries of first-level watersheds. Traditional villages have a clear agglomeration trend in space, with a concentrated and contiguous distribution pattern based on the “core density area–ring-core expansion group–belt area”. The key factors affecting the traditional village distribution are annual precipitation, annual average temperature, and river density. The traditional village number has a clear inverted U-shaped relationship with the annual average temperature, river density, and road density. The study reveals the complex and various characteristics of the traditional village distribution and its influence mechanism and offers scientific advice for traditional villages’ future protection and development.