Based on the monthly data of 12 months in 30 major cities and combined with the monthly data of the air quality index (AQI) in 30 major cities, this paper analyzed the quality of human settlements in 2015 with the ArcGIS spatial analysis method. On the basis of the quality of air in this analysis, the coupling degree of the five great systems in these human settlements was also calculated. e finding shows that (1) according to the spatial distribution of the human settlements quality index in the main cities, the quality of urban human settlements was gradually decreased from the coastal regions to northwest inland regions, presenting an overall look that the quality was high in the south and low in the north, which converged to the change of the air quality; (2) the human settlements quality index apparently changed with season variation. A significant difference was found in the fourth quarter, and the biggest deviation among cities in China was up to 0.680, while the smallest deviation in the second quarter was 0.448; and (3) on the basis of factors that influenced the quality index, related kinds of norms in the main cities were built in the five great systems of human settlements, and the evaluated coupling degree between the five systems was at the antagonistic stage.

A person’s living behavior patterns are closely related to three types of settlements: real-life settlements, imagined settlements, and pseudo-settlements. The term “pseudo-settlement” (PS) refers to the places that are selectively recorded and represented after the mass media chose and restructure the residence information. As the mass media rapidly develops and people’s way of obtaining information gradually change, PS has already become one of the main ways for people to recognize and understand real-life settlements, as well as describe their impressions of imagined settlements. PS also has a profound impact on tourism, employment, investment, migration, real estate development, etc. Thus, the study of PSs has important theoretical and practical significance. This paper proposes to put forward residential quarters where the mass media is displayed as the object of study and establishes the pseudo-settlement index system of Dalian in and elaborate analysis of the concept of PSs. From three aspects, including pseudo-buildings, pseudo-districts and pseudo-culture, this paper uses the ArcGIS 10.0 kernel density (spacial analyst) to analyze and interpret the basic characteristics and spatial patterns of 14 elements of the PS in Dalian. Through systemic clustering analysis, it identifies eight major types of PSs in Dalian. Then it systematically elaborates current situations and characteristics of the spatial pattern of PSs in Dalian, namely: regionally concentrated, widely scattered and blank spaces without pseudo-settlements. Finally, this paper discusses the mechanism of formation of PSs in Dalian.

Taking Dalian, a typical square city in China, as an example based on data from remote sensing images, questionnaires, spatial statistics, social economy, etc., 48 squares in the main districts were constructed from the perspective of human settlements in order to build five systems: nature, humanity, society, residence and support. The aim was to explore the spatio-temporal differentiation characteristics and their driving mechanism. The results show the following: (1) The index system was constructed based on the human settlements perspective, and PCA was used to comprehensively evaluate it. Four principal component factors were extracted, and their cumulative contribution rate is 78.701%. On this basis, city squares were divided into four types: comprehensive square, recreational square, commercial service square and traffic square. (2) Using Mapinfo to visualize the square space, and taking the People’s Square as the center, the squares from the Tsarist Russia and Japanese colonial rule time periods were mainly distributed within 5 km, mostly in the direction of NE-SEE. During the construction of New China, city squares were distributed in all directions of the city, mainly between NE-SE and NNW-SSW. (3) ArcGIS was used to create an analysis chart of square service scope. Compared with 1999, it was more concentrated in central cities in 2016, and the service scope was relatively small. However, a square with high popularity has a wider influence. (4) The formation and evolution of the spatial pattern of city squares are affected by many factors, such as nature, economy, society, politics, ecological environment and technology. In the planning and development of city squares, Dalian should pay full attention to human settlements perpectives and add luster to the development of livable cities.