Spatial-temporal characteristics and causes of changes to the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in the eastern plains of China

Abstract

As part of the cultural landscape, administrative toponyms do not only reflect natural and sociocultural phenomena, but also help with related management and naming work. Historically, county-level administrative districts have been stable and basic administrative regions in China, playing a role in the country’s management. We explore the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in China’s eastern plains areas. A Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis, Geo-Informatic Tupu, Kernel Density Estimation, and correlation coefficients were conducted. We constructed a GIS database of county-level administrative toponyms from the Sui dynasty onward using the Northeast China, North China, and Yangtze Plains as examples. We then summarized the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in China’s eastern plains areas. The results indicate that (1) the number of toponyms has roughly increased over time; (2) toponym densities on the three plains are higher than the national average in the corresponding timeframe since the Sui; and (3) county-level administrative toponyms related to mountains and hydrological features accounted for more than 30% of the total in 2010. However, the percentage of county-level administrative toponyms related to natural factors on the three plains has decreased since the Sui. To explore the factors influencing this spatio-temporal evolution, we analyzed the correlations between the toponyms and natural factors and human/social factors. The correlation degree between toponym density and population density is the highest, and that between toponym density and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) the lowest. Temperature changes were important in toponym changes, and population changes have influenced toponym changes over the last 400 years in China.

Spatial-Temporal Characteristic Analysis of Ethnic Toponyms Based on Spatial Information Entropy at the Rural Level in Northeast China

“…Additional studies have focused on the spatial-temporal evolution of toponyms and cultural landscapes from the perspective of time. For example, scholars used methods including geographic information map, kernel density estimation, and correlation coefficient analysis, respectively, taking Northeast China, North China, and the Yangtze River plain as examples, to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the toponym cultural landscape in county-level administrative regions since the Sui Dynasty (581-619 CE) and to analyze the correlation among population density, digital elevation model (DEM), gross domestic product (GDP), and toponym density [14]. Other scholars have established the spatial-temporal database of the evolution of toponyms, set the spatial-temporal change index from the natural and cultural perspectives, and expressed the influence index in the form of a geographic information map to analyze the differences in the spatial distribution of toponyms density since the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BCE) [15].…”

Semantics And Etymology Of English Astionyms In The Aspect Of Linguistic Geography

“…The first one is connected with the practical application of linguistic and geographical knowledge of toponyms. For example, Wang et al (2019) in the article "Spatial-temporal characteristics and causes of changes to the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in the eastern plains of China" point out:…”

The Sustainable Development of Choronymic Cultural Landscapes in China Based on Geo-Informatic Tupu

“…For example, Qidong City in Jiangsu Province was once a sea area and was named in 1989 for the meaning of developing the eastern coastal area, it preliminarily emerged as a shoal made by the sands; Hekou District in Shandong Province was also once a sea area and was named in 1984 for locating at the estuary of the Yellow River, and people initially settled there since the Qing dynasty [42]. Furthermore, generally, the density of toponyms can reflect the level of population density and economic development [59]. In order to explore the evolution venation of choronymic cultural landscapes, we analyzed the spatial-temporal pattern evolution, spatial-temporal variation, spatial association, and semantic evolution of choronymic cultural landscapes since the Qin dynasty.…”

“…In this paper, we utilized the generated maps and adopted an event-based state amendment model to establish the spatio-temporal database based on The Historical Atlas of China [37], The New Century Chinese City View [39], and China's Toponyms Anecdotes Dictionary [42], and subsequently selected various indicators of spatial-temporal variation and spatial association to derive a series of spatio-temporal composite maps according to time sequence ( Figure 1). The spatio-temporal evolution Tupu of choronyms densities of China since the Qin was generated by the KDE method [59], and extracted the naming time information of county-level choronyms in 2010 AD by relying on the expert knowledge from the Dictionary of Chinese Historical Toponyms [38], The New Century Chinese City View [39], Encyclopedic Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Chinese Geographical Names [41], and China's Toponyms Anecdotes Dictionary [42]. In order to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of different levels choronyms, we set the weights of toponyms by applying the method of Expert Scoring.…”

“…Based on some research achievements [7,42,59,64], we divided the top 20 words of choronyms into eight categories according to the words' meaning. That is, relevant to mountains, hydrological features, terrain, orientation, blessings, ancient relics, surnames, and minority languages.…”