Study on the Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Patterns of Traditional Villages in Shaanxi Province

In this study, we take two batches of 323 provincial traditional villages in Shaanxi Province from 2015 to 2017 as the research object. We use Google Earth to conduct spatial positioning, analyze the villages’ spatial distribution characteristics, and carry out correlation analysis under different geographical units and influencing factors. The study shows that traditional villages in Shaanxi Province have three high-density core areas, with the increase of altitude and terrain undulation, its distribution shows a "low–high–low" distribution pattern; mostly concentrated in the south and southeast and within 3 km from the drainage basin; the population density and economic level are weakly negatively correlated with the spatial distribution of traditional villages. According to their spatial agglomeration characteristics, traditional villages in Shaanxi Province can be divided into four distribution modes, namely, diffusion type, polarizing type, trough type, and backward type.