Spatial distribution of rural settlement in typical karst terrain in Guizhou Province—A case study on Hongfeng in Qinzhen City, Yachi in Bijie City and Huajiang River between Zhenfeng County and Guanling County

In order to study the features of the spatial distribution of rural settlements in karst terrain, Guizhou Province, three typical landform types study area are select, they are Hongfeng in Qinzhen City(plateau-basin), Yachiin Bijie City(plateau-mountain)and Huajiang river between Zhenfeng County and Guanling County(plateau-cayon).Firstly, the agglomeration degree of settlement in study areas to the centeral area are evaluated by means of regional gravity centre analysis, aggregation dimension and the double logarithm coordinates plotting of spatial distribution. And then, by analyzing the Moran I and Local Moran's I coefficient and the corresponding scatter plot based on GeoDa software, the regional integration and local distribution of settlements are studied. The results indicate that there is clustering features in settlements in the plateau basin and plateau mountain, but their agglomeration degrees are different. It clusters to the population gravity centerin plateau mountain, but to the resident gravity center in plateau basin, and the gathered or half-gathered settlements mostly appear in plateau basin. As the karst terrain is quite complicated in relief, there are differences in horizontal spatial distribution in every study areas. In accordance with the agglomeration degree, the spatial distribution rule of the rural settlement is found as follows (from aggregate to dispersed): the plateau basin＞the plateau mountain＞the plateau valley.