Quality evaluation and division of regional types of rural human settlements in China

The improvement of rural human settlements is an important task in the Rural Revitalisation strategy in China. Determining the quality and spatial distribution of rural human settlements and making strategies according to local conditions are conductive to the construction of beautiful rural in China. On the basis of existing theories and research on rural human settlements, this paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework of rural human settlements that focuses on infrastructure, public services, quality of life, living standards and environmental health. Entropy method and cluster analysis are used to analyse the quality of rural human settlements and to divide regions among 31 provinces in China. The main conclusions are as follows: (i) China can be divided into four quadrants. Regions with high qualities are mainly concentrated in the first quadrant. The second and third quadrants score the lowest. The quality of rural human settlements in sub-dimensions shows disequilibrium and the quality of life is low compared with other four dimensions. (ii) The 31 provinces can be divided into five categories: demonstration regions, regions with potentials for development, regions with weak points, regions of satisfying basic needs, and backward regions. (iii) Rural human settlements is a large complex system, whose quality is closely related to the conditions of regional development. Long-term follow-up investigation should be the focus of future research. Findings provide scientific guidance for the optimization and improvement mechanism of rural human settlements and rural revitalisation.