Identifying the structure of rural regional system and implications for rural revitalization: A case study of Yanchi County in northern China

Rural regional system is a geographical perspective to understand rural development and land use change. Identifying the structure of rural regional system has been the key issue in rural geography. This paper proposed a multi-dimension analysis framework and developed "Pole–Field–Zone–Network" (PFZN) to identify the structure of rural regional system. Taking Yanchi County as a case, which is in farming pastoral ecotone northern China, we integrate geospatial analysis methods to identify the structure. The results show that the structure of Yanchi’ rural regional system can be identified and divided into 23 rural revitalization poles, eight village-town spatial fields, and five rural development zones. This paper analyzes the PFZN structure of rural regional system, which cascade connects taking the development poles as the nodes, fields as the influence domain, and zones as the type of control area, and according to the regionalization results for the rural development zone, the corresponding implications of revitalization are given. It is proposed to promote the construction of central villages and towns with revitalization as the core, optimize the spatial structure and layout based on filed and zone, and build a multi-functional network structure. Then, the main function-oriented zoning for the rural areas, as well as dominant type classification and principal purpose classification of the rural regional system should also be feasible strategies for policymakers and rural revitalization planners to achieve sustainable rural development. We try to fill the gap in quantitative identification on the structure of rural regional system to enrich the research regarding the theoretical model by exploring the interaction of human-environment relationship, which has significance for the rural revitalization and sustainable development. •This paper proposed a multi-dimension analysis framework for rural regional system.•"Pole–Field–Zone–Network" (PFZN) method is developed to identify the structure of rural regional system.•The structure of Yanchi’ rural regional system was identified by PFZN method.•Policy suggestions were given for Yanchi’s rural revitalization.•This research has significance for the rural revitalization and sustainable development.