A Novel Approach to Bridging Physical, Cultural, and Socioeconomic Indicators with Spatial Distributions of Agricultural Heritage Systems (AHS) in China

Abstract

This paper aimed at analyzing the spatial distribution and variation of agricultural heritage systems (AHSs) in China. In particular, the spatial relationships between AHS sites and influencing factors were analyzed by employing a spatial analysis approach, i.e., solving for cause–effect relations. Then, two reasonable pathways for protecting AHSs were proposed following this methodology. The results showed that the number of AHS sites in eastern China was larger than in western China. This peculiar distribution is thought to be affected by distinctive natural resource endowments and sociocultural traits of local agricultural systems. Indeed, a series of natural, sociocultural, and economic factors were analyzed to reveal their relationships with AHSs. In China, AHS sites have excellent and unique natural conditions, and their clustered distributions positively correlate with the spatial distribution of high-quality agricultural products and the biological abundance index; on the other hand, they negatively correlate with the relief degree of the land surface and GDP. Further results showed that regions with AHSs were mainly located in rural areas of major Chinese cultural zones. In conclusion, two pathways of implementation of high-quality agricultural products and agro-tourism were proposed in order to play an integrated economic, social, and ecological function for protecting AHSs in China. These scientific findings may encourage local governments to protect AHSs and the transition of rural communities.

Sustainable farming genes: spatial distribution and influencing factors of Chinese Agricultural Heritage Sites (CAHSs)

“…It provides powerful spatial analysis that enables users to analyze and identify relationships between data on maps. For example, it can identify areas with high or low concentrations of certain phenomena within a specified area, or analyze the impact of environmental factors on features at a given distance (Liu and Doronzo, 2020;Zhang et al, 2022). GeoDetector Analysis is another method used in our study that combines statistics and geographic information to determine the relative importance of the various factors that affect a given phenomenon, thereby providing an explanation for driving factors in phenomena and other spatial patterns (Nie et al, 2022).…”

“…To reveal the radiation level of resource elements in geographic space (Liu and Doronzo, 2020), the linear buffer analysis in ArcGIS 10.6 is used to establish buffer zones of 20 km, 40 km, 80 km, and 120 km around rivers. The formula is as follows:…”

The spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of cultural heritage in the Yellow River Basin

“…The spatial agglomeration effect is strong, and the hierarchical diffusion structure is clear. These are also the three periods with the most obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics [ 41 – 43 ].…”

The Influence of Environment on the Distribution Characteristics of Historical Buildings in the Songshan Region

“…Liang, Y. et al took global vineyard cultural heritage as an object and analyzed its geographical distribution and formation reasons [32]. Liu, G. et al adopted the spatial analysis method to analyze the spatial distribution and variation in China's agricultural heritage system [33]. Although the research objects and research scopes are different, by sorting out the factors which influence the distribution characteristics of heritage, we can find that these factors include altitude, landforms, water systems, as well as the important node in the process of historical development.…”