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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (7): 1430-1444.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.473

• Land Use and Ecosystem • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution and influencing mechanism of human settlements quality in the Ili River Valley

DANG Lingzhi1,2(), WANG Hongwei1,2(), WANG Can1,2, WU Jinhua1,2, GUO Ruijie3, ZHANG Xinyuan1,2   

  1. 1 College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, Xinjiang, China
    2 Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Urumqi 830017, Xinjiang, China
    3 Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Educational Science Research Institute, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-08-07 Revised:2025-09-07 Online:2026-07-25 Published:2026-07-07
  • Contact: WANG Hongwei E-mail:107552301157@stu.xju.edu.cn;wanghw_777@xju.edu.cn

Abstract:

Human settlements constitute the fundamental space for human survival and development. Enhancing the quality of human settlements will promote the coordination of human-land relations, thereby facilitating high-quality development in the Ili River Valley of Xinjiang, China. This study constructs an evaluation index system for human settlement quality in the Ili River Valley from the perspectives of production, living, and ecological functions. Using the criteria importance through intercriteria correlation weighting method, the coupling coordination degree model, and the comprehensive influencing factor analysis model, this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing mechanisms of human settlement quality in the Ili River Valley over an 11-year period from 2013 to 2023. The results indicate the following: (1) The overall quality of human settlements across all counties (cities) in the Ili River Valley has steadily improved, exhibiting multicore and asymmetric distribution patterns. Regional differences have gradually narrowed, and spatial balance has increased. (2) The subsystems of human settlement quality have improved in a coordinated manner, with the ecological dimension consistently maintaining a relatively high-quality index. The spatial centers of gravity of all subsystems have shown a northwestward migration trend. The coupling level among subsystems has significantly improved, transitioning from a running-in period to a high-level coupling stage. However, the degree of coordination remains imbalanced, indicating an urgent need to enhance coordination mechanism among systems. (3) Shopping services, industrial economy, telecommunications services, ecological vegetation, and air quality are the primary factors influencing human settlement quality. Production, living, and ecological functions play supporting, leading, and foundational roles, respectively, within the human settlement system. These findings provide a scientific basis for optimizing human settlements in oasis regions of arid and semiarid environments.

Key words: “production-living-ecological” functions, human settlements quality, random forest model, XGBoost model, Ili River Valley