Quantitative Study of the Spatial Morphological Characteristics of Villages Based on Fractal Theory: Nanning Village as an Example

Abstract

Spatial morphology is an integral part of the regional cultural blueprint of villages. In recent years, rapid urbanization and new rural construction have destroyed the authenticity of the spatial form of villages, resulting in disordered development of village spaces and broken village layout. The optimization and continuation of the spatial form of villages have become critical issues in the process of future rural planning. Most of the research to date in our country has focused on the spatial form of cities or traditional villages, but villages that have been destroyed in the process of rapid urbanization have been neglected. Further, most studies to date are qualitative in nature with rough geometric measurements. There has been little research on the laws of villages and the surrounding environment, nor on their future development. Based on fractal theory, geometric information was collected from 40 village samples. Plane geometric figures of three spatial scales were extracted and then quantitative analysis of spatial morphology was performed. Further, an in-depth analysis of the quantitative characteristics of village morphology and the relationship between spatial morphology and other elements was performed. This study of spatial morphology can be extended to common villages, allowing effective promotion of the optimization and continuation of the overall village spatial pattern in Nanning and to provide new ideas and methods for rural space construction in the future. At the same time, this study provides an accurate picture of rural construction in areas where the economy is lagging behind but urbanization is developing rapidly. The insight from this study can inform more scientific rural construction and planning in the future.