A forest village has been the basic unit of ecological civilization construction, further serving as an important carrier for beautiful China and ecologically livable villages. It has the important practical significance to promote the comprehensive revitalization and high-quality development of villages. Taking the 7 586 forest villages of China as the research objects, this study aims to identify the spatial structural characteristics of forest villages by Non-Equilibrium Index, Moran's I, Getis-Ord Gi*, and kernel Density Estimation tool. The geographical coordinates of forest villages were also obtained by the Google Earth and digital processing with ArcGIS10.2. All the data was used to determine the explanatory power of the main influencing factors for the spatial distribution of forest villages by a Geodetector. The results were as followed: 1) The forest village showed a spatial differentiation characteristic of “dense in the east, scattered in the middle, and sparse in the west”, with a "northeast-southwest" distribution direction, which was spatially consistent with the geographical pattern formed by Hu Huangyong line, temperature, altitude, and topography. Furthermore, the eastern, central, and western regions of high-density prefecture-level units accounted for 52.5%, 35%, and 12.5%, respectively, where the density of forest villages gradually increased from west to east. 2) There was a clustered distribution pattern in the forest village with the significantly spatial spillover effects, where the hotspots were located in the spatial range of 118°-126°E and 24°-38°N. There was a prominent polarization of the forest village, leading to 6 primary core areas and 10 secondary core areas in space. 3) The main influencing factors on the spatial differentiation were the road density, forestry output density, rural cultural density, average annual temperature, urbanization rate, average elevation, and topographic relief in forest villages. The interaction detection showed that the two-factor interaction presented a stronger explanatory power than the single-factor effect, where the road density, rural cultural density, and forestry output density were the leading factors associated with the increased interaction explanatory power. 4) There was a strong correlation between the spatial distribution of forest villages and the natural environmental elements. Temperature, altitude, and topographic relief were the binding factors for the formation of the basic spatial pattern of forest villages, whereas, the urbanization rate and forestry output density were the main driving forces for the spatial pattern of forest villages, while the road density and rural cultural density were the guiding forces for the change of the spatial distribution pattern of forest villages. It infers that the spatial pattern of forest villages was attributed to the long-term interaction of multiple factors. Correspondingly, the density and quantity of forest villages generally showed a “first increase and then decrease” phase change, with the increase of road density, forestry output density, and urbanization rate. 5) Forest villages have been classified 5 types of urban, communication, industry, culture, and comprehensive. Thereinto, the urban type of forest village which has remarkable location advantages was spread around the provincial capital, other types were aggregated distribution at different area in according with the remarkable advantage of single factor. However, the comprehensive type of forest village has been affected symmetrically by varied factors. Therefore, in the future, the development of forest village should be scientific planning, rational layout, and urban-rural integration on the basis of the features of spatial distribution and the effective mechanism, and following the principle of suitable to local condition, classified promotion, and differentiated development, to push orderly the incremental expansion and stock renewal of forest villages. So that the deterioration of eco-environment of village and the decay of traditional culture can be prevented effectively. Meanwhile, to advance the driving-power of dominant factor, and promote the development of integrated urban and rural by exertion of comparative advantage of different types of forest village, then to revitalize overall the forest villages. © 2022 Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All rights reserved.
