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In order to study the coupling relationship between rural population and rural residential land area change and promote the economization and intensification level of rural residential land, in this paper the Tapio decoupling model was introduced to reveal the decoupling degree of rural population-land change. From the perspective of urban and rural demographic shift, the factors decomposition model for rural residential land expansion was established. The logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) was adopted to quantitatively analyze the influencing factors accounting for the changes in rural residential land area. The change of rural residential land area was decomposed into 4 main driving effects including rural residential land intensive use effect, urban-rural population structure effect, urbanization effect and total population effect. The addition decomposition method was used to measure the magnitude of 4 driving effects. The rural residential land area of China (1996-2016) and 31 provinces or municipalities (2000-2016) were taken as example. The results show that China has experienced rapid urban-rural transformation in the past few years. Rural population continues to decrease, presenting a 30.7 percent decline. But in the meantime, the total area of rural residential land increases continuously. The changes in rural residential land area among different provinces (municipalities) varied obviously, and overall the eastern and western regions indicated a greater growth. The relationship between rural population and rural residential land change is uncoordinated, and rural residential land tends to be more extensively utilized. From the decoupling index of China and 31 provinces or municipalities, the decoupling relationship between rural population and residential land area change were mainly characterized by strong negative decoupling. The degree of negative decoupling in the eastern and western regions was more serious than that in the central areas. What's more, the degree of negative decoupling is generally deteriorating. The values of 4 driving effects were measured from 1996-2016. The results indicated that the scale of rural residential land in China increased by 2.020×105 hm2 from 1996 to 2008 including a decrease of 116.833×105 hm2 caused by urban-rural population structure effect, and the increase of 33.497×105, 71.813×105, 13.544×105 hm2 for rural residential land intensive use effect, urbanization effect and total population effect, respectively. Additionally, during 2009-2016, the scale of rural residential land in China increased by 7.275×105 hm2. The rural residential land intensive use effect, urbanization effect and total population effect caused the increase of 36.689×105, -68.271×105, 32.164×105, 6.692×105 hm2, respectively. Among 4 driving effects, the urban-rural population structure effect was stronger than the others. The contribution of 4 driving effects to the change in rural residential land area in different periods performed differently. The value of urbanization effect was greater than that of rural residential land intensive use effect during 1996-2008, but after 2009, the rural residential land intensive use effect gradually exceeded the urbanization effect, and become the dominant factor caused the increase of rural residential land. Therefore, strengthening the planning and management of rural residential land, gradually promoting rural residential land consolidation, and actively exploring the exit mechanism of rural residential land may be effective measures for improving the intensification level of rural land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there are still a large number of poverty-stricken counties in the western part of China. Although the government has recently increased financial support for rural areas, and the policy guidelines have been steadily tilting toward rural areas, especially poor rural areas, rural poverty is still difficult to resolve. In order to reasonably determine the optimal layout direction of rural settlements in poor mountainous areas, and put forward some scientific guidance in the rural land remediation and new rural construction in mountainous areas, this paper took Xundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, a former national poverty-stricken county that was out of poverty in 2018, as a research area, and used the methods of remote sensing interpretation, GIS analysis, landscape shape index model, buffer analysis, Kernel density estimation and Getis-Ord Gi* to study the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of rural settlements in Xundian County from 2001 to 2017 in terms of space, scale and form. The research results showed that: 1) During 2001-2017, there were some changes in the scale, density, shape and spatial distribution of rural settlements in Xundian County. The main changes were as follows: from 2001 to 2017, the overall scale of rural settlements had expanded significantly, the landscape shape tended to be regular, and the average patch size increased; the characteristics of rural settlements clustering in areas with superior terrain were becoming more and more obvious. The analysis results of kernel density and Getis-Ord Gi* showed that the spatial divergence characteristics of rural settlements patch scales were apparent, and the distribution patterns were gradually expanding from small-scale decentralization to large-scale clustering; 2) The natural geographical factors such as geological and topographical conditions were the basic factors that influencing the distribution pattern of rural settlements in mountainous areas. The basic pattern of spatial distribution of rural settlements in mountainous areas is the result of long-term adaptation to topographic and geomorphological conditions; 3) Socio-economic factors, location factors and policy factors were the important factors influencing the change of spatial distribution. As the urban-rural income gap increased, the rural population of Xundian County flew to urban areas, so rural settlements were more concentrated in urban areas; the results of the neighborhood analysis of towns and roads also indicated that rural settlements tended to be concentrated in the distribution of towns and roads. In addition, the precise poverty alleviation policy with relocation as the main means was another major factor leading to the concentration of rural settlements in the plain areas with superior terrain conditions. According to the study, for mountainous rural areas with scarce natural resources, the poverty alleviation in mountainous areas should rely mainly on industrial assistance rather than policy assistance in the future. The local government should focus on increasing the employment opportunities of farmers and improving the livelihood conditions of farmers. Only in this way can we really help the poor and achieve the rural revitalization. This study can provide a practical guidance for the poverty alleviation work in the rural areas of the southwestern frontiers with frequent geological disasters; also provide a scientific theoretical basis for the optimization of the spatial layout of rural settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]