Evolution of rural settlements and its influencing mechanism in the farming-pastoral ecotone of Inner Mongolia from a production-living-ecology perspective

Revealing the evolutionary characteristics of rural settlements and the influencing mechanism bears significant implications for rural restructuring and revitalization. However, existing studies have paid inadequate attention to the farming-pastoral ecotone, with a limited exploration of the influencing mechanism from a production-living-ecology perspective. Taking Wuchuan County as a case, this paper reveals that the evolution of rural settlements is slow and the overall area of rural settlements decreases slightly. This is attributed to severe rural population loss and the challenges in rural homesteads withdrawal, stemming from the prevalent phenomenon of rural-urban circular migration driven by the villagers' pursuit of a better life. The conversion scale between rural settlements and non-irrigated farmland is larger than that between rural settlements and other land, and the rural settlements exhibit an expansion trend in urban fringe due to the ecological relocation projects carried by local government. Random distribution of rural settlements in the farming-pastoral ecotone occurs as a result of the huge per capita land area coupled with the proximity of agricultural cultivation and grazing. Although the spatial pattern of rural settlements in some villages has evolved towards clustered distribution, the issue of dispersed distribution of rural settlements remains prominent. The evolutionary states of rural settlements are jointly influenced by production convenience of agriculture and animal husbandry, living needs of education, medical care and transportation, and ecological environment. Given that the irrational states produce negative impacts on the rural production-living-ecology coordinated development, the proactive responses from policy makers are imperative to guide the evolution of rural settlements towards enhanced production efficiency, improved living standards and ecological aesthetics. This study contributes to uncovering the specific characteristics of rural settlements' evolution within the farming-pastoral ecotone and introduces a novel analytical framework for understanding its influencing mechanism. It provides a scientific guidance for optimizing rural settlements.