Environmental Suitability Evaluation for Human Settlements of Rural Residential Areas in Hengshui, Hebei Province

To improve the development quality of rural residential areas in plain areas requires scientific evaluation. Based on the rural residential area in Hengshui City, Hebei Province, the study selected four indicators of location, production, ecology, and management, to build an evaluation model for the suitability of human settlements and evaluated rural residential areas in Hengshui City. The findings indicated the following: (1) The most suitable areas are mainly concentrated in the geographical center of Hengshui City. The generally suitable areas are mainly distributed in the east of the city. The basic suitable areas are scattered in the west and northeast of the city. The unsuitable areas are mainly concentrated in the north of the city. Most of the area of Hengshui City is suitable for the residence and development of rural residential areas, and 72.86% of rural residential areas are located in suitable areas, which is consistent with the geographical environment characteristics of plain areas. (2) The rural residential areas in unsuitable areas are mainly due to the low income, serious population loss and low urbanization rate, which are in line with the characteristics of rural residential areas. (3) The suitability of human settlements in rural residential areas in plain areas is mainly affected by the per capita agricultural land area, hydrology index, distance to river, distance to country, distance to a slow road, and distance to the fast road are low-level driving factors, of which distance to a fast road has the weakest influence. (4) There is a significant positive correlation between the environmental suitability and the distribution density of rural residential areas. The improvement of the suitability of human settlements can effectively promote the aggregation and distribution of rural residential areas. High-high clustering areas are mainly concentrated in the middle and northeast of Hengshui City, while low-low clustering areas are scattered in the north and southwest of Hengshui City. (5) The location index (LI) and management index (AI) play a limiting role in the suitability of human settlements in the northeast of Hengshui City, and the government should strengthen management intervention and infrastructure construction in the northeast of Hengshui City. The production index (PI) plays a limiting role in the suitability of human settlements in the west of Hengshui City and should consider the improvement of production capacity in the west of Hengshui City. The research results play a vital role in improving the carrying capacity of regional resources and the environment in the plain area, improving rural production, and living conditions, and promoting the development of rural planning in the whole region