Abstract:

At present,the research on settlements should be strengthened in the process of carrying out building new countryside in Karst mountainous areas.In this paper,taking the Houzhai River region of Pudin County,Guizhou Province,as an example,the distribution pattern and changes in the region of the villages for more than four decades were studied in the smallscale region by GIS technology and quantitative analysis of the landscape index.The results showed that the distribution of settlement patterns,the number and size of the settlement were determined by the level of land productivity in different Houzhai River region in the 1960s.In 2004,population growth and socioeconomic progress resulted in the great increase of the total area of the village.〖JP2〗The number and size of the settlement in the different physiognomy types and the rapid development of settlements were determined mainly by external transport conditions.The settlements concentrated along the road.It showed the lined distribution trend along the road,and its shape was complex.