Abstract:Analyzing the spatial distribution characteristic of rural settlements and their influencing factors on a macro scale is conducive to comprehensively understanding the spatial differential law of rural settlements and its forming reasons, and providing a research basis for village planning and other work. Taking Hebei Province as the main research area, the overall changes and spatial distribution characteristics of rural settlements were analyzed with the help of landscape pattern indices, the nearest neighbor analysis and kernel density estimation, and the main factors influencing rural settlement spatial distribution were explored based on the integrated application of distribution indices, factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that since 2000, especially after 2010, rural settlements in Hebei Province had mainly expanded their area through extension development and gradually showed a large-scale and concentrated distribution. They were aggregated in the southeast of Hebei Province and their degree of agglomeration was continuously increasing. The limitations of natural factors such as towering terrain, soil that was not conducive to agricultural production and rivers and lakes of different scales on the spatial distribution of rural settlements were weakening. There were differences in the degree and radius of agglomeration effects that locational factors such as towns or roads of different levels on rural settlements. The rural production and housing scale, the regional economic development and the regional infrastructure completeness were the main social and economic factors that affected the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Hebei Province, and the main areas affected by different factors were distinct. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the differentiated optimization of rural settlement in relevant regions of northern China.