Resumen de Driving mechanism of concentrated rural resettlement in upland areas of Sichuan Basin: A perspective of marketing hierarchy transformation
Weiping Liu, Riza Radmehr, Shichao Zhang, Shida Rastegari Henneberry, Chaofu Wei
Traditional rural landscape in Sichuan Basin was distinctive in China, characterized by highly dispersed rural settlements but a well-organized marketing system corresponding to the classic central-place hierarchy. In response to China’s rapid socio-economic transformation during recent years, concentrated rural resettlement (CRR) has been widely adopted in Sichuan Basin to remold traditional dispersed rural settlements into the concentrated rural settlement (CRS). This study attempts to explore the driving forces of CRR practices through an engagement with the synchronous evolution of rural market-towns in the upland areas of Sichuan Basin. By an empirical study in the basin, we depicted the differentiated evolutions of the original market-towns driven by the accelerated industrialization and urbanization in recent years. Statistical analysis on 87 CRSs indicated that governmental subsidies, transport services, accessibility to intermediate market-towns and industrial development were critical in determining the CRR outcomes, while the role embedded in the standard market-towns was secondary. The evolution of the market-towns was common to that experienced in western developed countries, while CRR outcomes were underpinned but also limited by China’s distinct institution. We argue that CRR planning in upland areas of Sichuan Basin should realign with the evolving market-town system to foster a spatial hierarchy compatible with the urban-rural integrated development.
