Differentiation of spatial morphology of rural settlements from an ethnic cultural perspective on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau, China

Rural settlements are carriers of ethnic culture, and their spatial morphology is restricted by the natural environment and ethnic culture, especially in areas where ethnic consciousness is strong. In this study, we selected multi-ethic communities in northwest China to analyze spatial morphology of rural settlements, and we described the relationship between ethnic culture and spatial morphology from the perspective of different ethnicities, leading industries, religious beliefs, and modem education. There were obvious geographical clustering characteristics and gradient variations in morphological structure of rural settlements in Qinghai Province, China. Spatial morphology of rural settlements in different multi-ethnic communities highlighted the ethnic characteristics of this unique nation, and it had an obvious relationship with their leading industries, modem education, and religious beliefs. The relationship between the spatial morphology of rural settlements and the leading economic activity revealed regular change in characteristics, from farming towns (F) to farming and animal husbandry towns (F-AH) to animal husbandry and farming towns (AH-F), and finally to animal husbandry towns (AH). The spatial morphology of other industrial towns (OI) did not show the coordinated regulation as did the other four categories, which showed the particularity of spatial morphology. All ethnic rural settlements had a significantly higher dependence on primary education than on religious beliefs. We concluded that educational resources will become an important factor in the future for optimizing the spatial pattern of rural settlements of multi-ethnic settlements in Northwest China.