The study of ancient settlements in the traditional waterside towns of Jiangnan is an important part of scientific research on architectural heritage. This study examines ancient settlements in the Nanxi River Basin during various historical periods, such as the Neolithic Age, Eastern Han Dynasty, Tang-Five Dynasty, Song-Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty. It investigates their temporal and spatial evolution and the factors that influence their distribution, with a particular focus on the role of intangible cultural heritage. This study focuses on the relationship between the spatial evolution of traditional waterside settlements in the Nanxi River Basin and the distribution of intangible heritage and analyzes the driving factors of their development. How settlements changed over time and space was examined with geographic information systems (GIS) software and by using kernel density, elliptical variance, and spatial autocorrelation methods on 204 ancient settlement points. This study also employs buffer and data overlay methods to analyze the factors that affect settlement distribution by elevation, slope, water system distance, and distance to intangible cultural heritage points. The study reveals the following. (1) During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, clans, culture, and the economy drove the expansion of early settlements, which relied on water systems and flat terrain, to form a multicenter distribution. (2) The settlement distribution in the Nanxi River Basin has undergone a transformation from single-point distribution to multipoint aggregation and divergence during the evolution from the Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty. The overall center of gravity of the settlements shifts from south to north and east, and the overall distribution of the settlements is in a state of aggregation. (3) The spatial and temporal evolution of settlements is jointly influenced by the natural environment and cultural factors. The natural environment determines the spatial distribution of early settlements, while cultural factors promote the evolution and development of the settlement space. This study further clarifies the key role of intangible cultural heritage in the formation and development of settlements and provides a reference framework for future heritage protection policies.

The spatial genes of rural settlements show a lot of different traditional settlement traits, which makes them a great starting point for studying rural spatial morphology. However, qualitative and macro-regional statistical indicators are usually used to find and extract rural settlement spatial genes. Taking Yubei Village in the Nanxi River Basin as an example, this study combined remote sensing images, real-time drone mapping, GIS (geographic information system), and space syntax, extracted 12 key indicators from five dimensions (landform and water features (environment), boundary morphology, spatial structure, street scale, and building scale), and quantitatively “decoded” the spatial genes of the settlement. The results showed that (1) the settlement is a “three mountains and one water” pattern, with cultivated land accounting for 37.4% and forest land accounting for 34.3% of the area within the 500 m buffer zone, while the landscape spatial diversity index (LSDI) is 0.708. (2) The boundary morphology is compact and agglomerated, and locally complex but overall orderly, with an aspect ratio of 1.04, a comprehensive morphological index of 1.53, and a comprehensive fractal dimension of 1.31. (3) The settlement is a “clan core–radial lane” network: the global integration degree of the axis to the holy hall is the highest (0.707), and the local integration degree R3 peak of the six-room ancestral hall reaches 2.255. Most lane widths are concentrated between 1.2 and 2.8 m, and the eaves are mostly higher than 4 m, forming a typical “narrow lanes and high houses” water town streetscape. (4) The architectural style is a combination of black bricks and gray tiles, gable roofs and horsehead walls, and “I”-shaped planes (63.95%). This study ultimately constructed a settlement space gene map and digital library, providing a replicable quantitative process for the diagnosis of Jiangnan water town settlements and heritage protection planning.

Against the backdrop of accelerated globalization and urbanization, traditional settlements in the Jiangnan waterside areas of China face challenges such as morphological distortion and a simplified spatial structure. The ecological adaptability and cultural value of settlements urgently need scientific protection. There has not been enough research on how to better classify settlements, how to conduct systematic morphological analysis, or how to use dynamic protection methods. This makes it hard to fully show the variety of settlement types and how they differ in different areas. To this end, this study uses a combination of GIS spatial analysis, type classification, and case study methods to classify and morphologically analyze 159 traditional settlement patches in the Nanxi River Basin. We construct a settlement type map from quantitative research on topographical, water system, and spatial morphological characteristics, and extract a spatial organization model of mountains and water. The results show the following: (1) The main morphological types, such as the plain–waterfront–strip-shaped and cluster-shaped/finger-shaped types, are typical patterns of traditional settlements in the basin. This indicates how well settlements can adapt to their natural surroundings. (2) This study summarizes six typical settlement sample spaces. (3) The settlement digital protection strategy suggested in this paper uses GIS and 3D modeling technology to make it easier to record, show, and manage information about settlement spaces. This offers a new way to protect traditional settlements scientifically. The study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of the settlement morphology of Jiangnan landscape pastoral areas but also provides an important reference for the protection and sustainable development of settlements in similar basins around the world.

China’s rapid economic development has brought challenges to traditional villages, which carry the characteristics of Chinese civilization and traditional culture. Protecting traditional villages is of enormous significance. As a representative of Qilu Cultural District, Shandong has many national-level traditional villages, but some areas lack research on traditional villages and related local cultural landscapes due to various reasons. This study was divided into two parts. First, CiteSpace 6.1.R6 and VOSviewer1.6 software were used to perform a visual bibliometric analysis of the vernacular cultural landscape. Then, China’s Qilu Cultural District (Shandong Province) was taken as a typical case; the literature was read carefully, and an in-depth qualitative analysis was carried out in the research context of the vernacular cultural landscape. This study found that the United States, the United Kingdom, and China have outstanding research results in this field, and the directions of the research have gradually diversified from the early focus on rural and agricultural environments to the later focus on cultural landscape protection, management, and sustainable development. By taking Shandong as an example, the study of traditional villages takes the year 2000 as the starting point and involves architecture, archaeology, culture, and other fields. The architectural field primarily concentrates on the spatial layout, where cultural protection emphasizes the integration of sustainable development using scientific and technological methods, and cultural tourism grapples with the issue of homogenization. Future research needs to improve the literature database, consider local Chinese characteristics, and establish an independent literature database for multidimensional, multifaceted, and cross-cultural research. The direction and focus of this research provide methods and references for subsequent research.

Rural settlements serve as the fundamental spatial unit in rural geography research and play a significant role in regional system research on human‒land relations. With the accelerated advances in urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization, the flow of urban and rural development factors has greatly changed the social and economic forms of rural areas, further seriously restricting the sustainable development of rural economies and societies. The spatial patterns of rural settlements serve as tangible reflections of rural living and the evolution of settlement structures, directly influencing the sustainable development of rural areas and the construction of rural human settlements. Despite the increasing number of relevant studies, a comprehensive review of the field’s dynamic evolution, research frontiers, and future development trajectories remains incomplete. On the basis of the Web of Science core database, this study used CiteSpace 6.2 R4 and VOS Viewer 1.6 software to perform a full systematic review of the literature on rural settlement spatial morphology from 2000 to 2024. The goal was to determine the current state of the research, where researchers are most active, and what major ideas and trends can be expected in the field of rural settlement spatial patterns. The results indicate that (1) the spatial patterns of rural settlements are a popular topic, integrating different disciplines and covering various themes, with close regional cooperation and a growing number of publications. At the national level, China, the United States, and France lead in research output and influence in this field. (2) The main research hotspots in the field include rural residential areas, spatial organization, land use, driving mechanisms, and regional systems, all of which are related to rural sustainable development. (3) Future research trends will likely focus on the response of rural settlement spatial patterns to new urbanization processes and social contexts. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of research hotspots, aiding researchers in related fields in quickly grasping the research frontiers and summaries.

Military settlements along the Ming Great Wall are typical representatives of the construction of the ancient Chinese military defense system. The location of the military fortification is complex, and the settlements are scattered and affected by multiple factors. The academic community lacks systematic research on the military settlements along the Ming Great Wall. Existing studies focus on local protection, especially the regional connectivity and overall defense mechanism of the military settlements in the Hexi Corridor. This study incorporates the distribution, morphology, and function of the military settlements in the Hexi Corridor into a unified analytical framework to explore the coordinated defense mechanism under the spatial attributes of the military settlements. Additionally, this study looks at the distribution pattern of 173 local military settlements using tools such as the kernel density index, the Moran index, and the buffer zone. It also conducts statistical analyses of 85 existing settlements to determine their scale and morphological index and uses 18 typical settlements as examples to investigate their spatial morphology using space syntax. This study’s findings indicate that (1) military settlements are spread out in a straight line, which is affected by many things such as terrain, water systems, oasis, and the Great Wall; (2) military facilities and environmental factors are strongly connected and linked in space; (3) military settlements have obvious cluster characteristics, and most are relatively regular quadrilaterals; and (4) the organizational logic of the internal space form is consistent. The main blocks are highly accessible, and the overall space is recognizable and has certain defensive characteristics. This study systematically constructed an analytical framework for multi-scale collaborative defense mechanisms, revealing a collaborative defense model of “linear distribution–hierarchical defense–functional coordination”. This demonstrates the top–down strategic thinking of the ancient Chinese military system and provides a new perspective for the study and protection of linear military heritage corridors.