Abstract: The rural landscape in river basins reflects the adaptation of people to the natural environment including terrain, topography and water systems during the long-term production of crops. A case study based on the Liuxi River Basin and its branch Shaxi River Sub-basin was carried out to understand the formation mechanism, spatial distribution laws of rural landscapes in river basins as well as the influence of human activities and natural environmental factors. The landscapes and influencing factors of the two chosen river basins were analyzed by using landscape pattern index, redundancy analysis and historical landscape feature assessment methods.Considering the river basin scale, the year 1985 was chosen as the key time node to investigate thelong-term history and changes before and after urbanization. The long-time series was based on the history and archaeological surveys. After 1985, attention was paid to changes before and after urbanization. The past remote sensing images were chosen as the data source. Field survey and investigation are only feasible upon narrowing of scales. The study period of sub-basin was chosen from 1974 to 2020. Considering the characteristics of rural landscape patterns in sub-basins, the influencing factors for the formation of landscape patterns were discussed thoroughly. Results provided theoretical references to multi-scale research on rural landscape patterns. Research outcomes demonstrated that for the basin scale, the average elevation and average nearest distance from settlements to water systems have a significant influence on landscape patterns. The average nearest distance from upstream rural settlements to water system is relatively short. It is positively related to landscape diversity, settlement scale and clustering degree. However, it is negatively related to landscape fragmentation. This indicates that the lower the landscape fragmentation of upstream rural units, the higher the connectivity between dominant landscape types. Furthermore, average elevation has positive correlations with average patch area and landscape spreading, indicating the low landscape fragmentation in higher-altitude areas within the Liuxi River basin.Considering the sub-basin scale,the evolution of agricultural land use systems has shaped the transition of agricultural landscapes from rice farming to a combination of fruit trees and vegetable farmlands, reflecting the significant influence of agricultural land systems on landscape patterns. Due to population mobility and labor outflows induced by urbanization, farmland is abandoned and the irregular fragmentation of landscape becomes prominent. Even thoughvisual interpretationwasimproved, cultivated land resources were wasted. The weakening of rural social cohesion has led to disorderly distribution of new settlements. It is necessary to encourage public participation through landscape management, improving cohesion and developing orderly and sustainable rural landscape patterns. The multi-scale research further proved that geographical environment and population development jointly shaped the evolutionary process of rural settlement landscapes in the Liuxi River Basin. The Liuxihe River Basin is influenced by geographical environment and population development. The river basin shows traditional “basin experiences”. Large valley basins are major settlements which are marginally influenced by urbanization. There are obvious differences between upstream and downstream landscapes. The upstream regions show single connectivity and the downstream regions are fragmented and diversified, which require different management strategies. Vegetation recovery and ecological corridor planning could be applied at upstream, while landscape fragmented management strategies can be adopted at downstream. Future studies should focus on the evolution of overall landscape patterns. Multi-functional landscape management and interdisciplinary cooperation will facilitate sustainable development and ecological protection.

Key words: rural landscape, landscape pattern, settlement characteristics, redundancy analysis (RDA), Liuxi River Basin, Shaxi River sub-basin

摘要： 为了深入探讨流域乡土景观的形成机制、空间分布规律以及人类活动与自然环境因素对景观格局的影响。选取了流溪河及其支流沙溪河作为研究区域，采用景观格局指数、冗余、历史景观特征评估方法等进行分析。发现在流域尺度下，聚落到水系的平均最近距离和平均高程对流溪河流域景观格局的异质性有显著影响；在子流域尺度下，农业土地制度、城镇化和乡土社会凝聚力在乡土聚落景观的塑造与演变中具有重要影响。多尺度研究揭示了地理环境与人口发展在共同塑造流域内乡土聚落景观，并且上下游地区乡土景观存在差异，需采用不同管理策略以维护完整性和可持续性。

关键词: 乡土景观, 景观格局, 聚落特征, 冗余分析, 流溪河流域, 沙溪河子流域