Research on the Theoretical Framework, Spatio-temporal Laws, and Driving Mechanism of Beautiful Human Settlements—A Case Study of the 14 Prefecture-Level Cities in Liaoning Province

Abstract

The existing research on Beautiful China focuses on the major strategic research that is horizontal and comprehensive, and it is urgent to conduct a vertical and in-depth study from the important focus of human settlements. This paper proposes the theoretical framework of “five-sphere integrated plan”, “three-state entirety”, and “binary fusion” of beautiful human settlements, and integrates the entropy power method, kernel density estimation method, geographic probe, and spatial analysis to study the spatio-temporal Laws and the driving mechanism of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province. The results show that: (1) In terms of time course, from 2009 to 2018, the beautiful human settlement in Liaoning showed a fluctuating upward trend, and there were more obvious stage divergence characteristics and discrete characteristics; over time, they clustered from low level to high level. (2) In terms of spatial pattern, beautiful human settlements in general showed regional heterogeneous characteristics. The construction in western Liaoning is relatively stable, while northern Liaoning has changed greatly. There is an obvious inverted “U” spatial structure in the province, and it was both higher in the north and south and lower in the east and west, specifically decreasing from southeast to northwest. The distribution pattern is a “dicaryon” dominated by Shenyang and Dalian, and a “triad” trend of core area, development area, and starting area. (3) System properties, such as environmental, support, and social systems show fluctuating upward trends, while systems such as population show downward trends with different discrete characteristics. (4) Driving mechanisms, social systems, and support systems are the main driving systems, and it is also driven by a combination of urban economic strength, population quantity and quality, infra-structure development such as housing, and emerging technology development. The purpose of studying the beautiful human settlements is to promote the integration and development of the sciences of human settlements and other cross disciplines and to clarify the focus of Liaoning local government on building a Beautiful China.

1. Introduction

(1) Introduction. The construction of Beautiful China is a major strategic idea and task put forward in the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which is the only way to achieve sustainable development strategy in China, and also reflects China’s commitment to the road of green development and the role of a great nation in building human community with a shared future. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also put the “Beautiful China” issue in an important position and proposed the goal of building a modern and powerful socialist country that is “rich, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful”, which means that building a Beautiful China has become an expectation in the process of China’s development. Human settlement is the most important spatial place for survival, life, and development. With the rapid advancement of new urbanization, urban settlement issues such as population, environment, housing, employment, and transportation, which are closely related to the people, are increasingly becoming major obstacles to China’s urban development; with the change of the main social contradiction in China, people are moving from subsistence to environmental protection to beauty. In view of this, it is important to explore the theoretical framework, the spatio-temporal laws, and the driving mechanism of a beautiful human settlements with a focus on the big picture and the small picture for the construction and development of Beautiful China and ecological civilization.

(2) Literature Review. At present, the connotation of Beautiful China has been deeply studied and analyzed, and the 15th Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee has also proposed that the construction goal of Beautiful China will be basically realized by 2035; domestic scholars have conducted a large number of investigations on Beautiful China from different perspectives, disciplines, and scales, with remarkable results: (1) In terms of content, the study covers the geographic mission of Beautiful China construction [1], the connotation of Beautiful China [2], the implementation of beautiful vision planning [3], the research progress of Beautiful China [4], and Beautiful China and land space [5]. (2) On the indicator system, scholars designed an indicator system containing five system layers to explore the spatial heterogeneity of coupled coordination [6]; scholars constructed an indicator system based on environmental performance index, human development index, and political culture index [7]. (3) In terms of methods, it mainly uses coupled models [8], spatial autocorrelation analysis [9], etc. (4) In terms of geographic scale of research, previous study involves the national [10], provincial [11], municipal [12], and rural [13] scales.

As a result, Beautiful China has become a trend for research, and beautiful human settlements, as a regional practice of Beautiful China, is an important focus point for evaluating the quality of Beautiful China construction. Foreign research on human settlements mainly focuses on the following aspects: (1) The impact of other factors on the human settlements, such as the impact of water level fluctuations on the human settlements [14], housing policies and human settlements [15], and driving factors for human settlements [16]; (2) the impact of human settlements on the ecological environmental impact, mainly including the impact of human settlements on forest protection [17,18], the impact of human settlements on animals [19,20,21,22,23], human settlements and climate change [24], human settlements and volcanoes [25], human settlements and disasters [26,27], human settlements and disease transmission [28], etc.; (3) changes in the human settlements [29] and governance of the human settlements [30,31]; (4) the study of technology and the human settlements, such as the detection of human settlements areas through remote sensing imagery collected by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and other data methods [32,33,34]; (5) detection and evaluation of the human settlements [35,36]; (6) other studies, related historical studies, such as the study of the historical aerial photos and human settlements of New Mexico [37]; and other content studies such as tourism [38], economy [39], and other aspects.

There is also a large amount of current domestic research on human settlements, mainly focusing on the following areas: (1) Theoretical studies, progress of research on the evolution of settlement [40], transformational development of settlement [41], research review and outlook [42]; (2) scale studies, large geospatial scales such as national regions [43], provincial administrative regions [44], and cities [45] and small geospatial scales such as tourist area [46], ecological functional areas [47], communities [48], and villages [49]. Such studies also include studies on the temporal scale of the settlement environment, such as the characteristics of the settlement environment evolution in Liaoning Province from 2005 to 2014 [50] and coupling coordination degree characteristics from 2005 to 2016 [51], the evolution of settlement environment in Zhangguying village from 1978 to the present [52]; (3) content studies, mainly including mismatch [53], quality and related mechanisms [54], types [55], sustainability [56], support conditions [57], and competitiveness [58]; (4) methodological studies, mainly including hierarchical analysis and entropy methods [59], GIS [60], application of correlation models [61], and the use of Big Data+ [62]; (5) phenomenological studies, which mainly include studies of human phenomena related to the settlement environment, such as real estate development [63], residents’ perceptions [64], longevity phenomena [65], and demand characteristics [66], (6) In the study of morphology, scholars break through the conventional study of settlement environment in a single form (reality) and innovatively propose “three-state entirety” of settlement environment, such as urban reality, pseudo and imagery in the information age [67]; they also study the spatiotemporal evolution of pseudo human settlements [68].

(3) Research gap and key scientific issues. In summary, scholars at home and abroad have provided important support for the study of beautiful human settlements, but at the same time, we should also see that relevant issues need to be improved. Most of the existing studies on Beautiful China focus on top-down major strategic research, and most of them are horizontal and comprehensive. There is an urgent need for in-depth vertical research on the human settlements. In the context of Beautiful China, based on the sciences of human settlements, a logical analysis system on the connotation and extension, theoretical basis, and theoretical framework of beautiful human settlements was proposed. On the basis of previous research, we set up a systematic measurement system containing 42 highly relevant indicators in 5 systems, and use entropy weight method, kernel density estimation method, geographic probe, and ArcGIS spatial analysis to study the divergence patterns of beautiful human settlements construction in 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province from 2009 to 2018 at the space–time levels and system level and explore the formation mechanism in depth. The theoretical exploration of beautiful human settlements is in line with people’s aspirations for a better life and better human settlements and is a cross-fertilization of the sciences of human settlements with ecology, geography, management, and other multidisciplinary disciplines. Empirical research on the beautiful human settlements in 14 prefecture level cities of Liaoning Province not only provides theoretical and data support for local governments in Liaoning to clarify the focus of Beautiful China construction, but also provides intellectual support for the revitalization of northeast China, the vertical development of Beautiful China, and the realization of ecological civilization construction.

2. Theoretical Framework of Beautiful Human Settlements

2.1. Connotation and Extension

Beautiful human settlement is an integral part of Beautiful China, with a view to making a useful contribution to the revitalization, development, and beauty of Liaoning, as well as providing useful guidance to meet the people’s urgent demand for a beautiful human settlement, the vertical and in-depth development of Beautiful China, and China’s influence in the global settlement governance system. Beautiful human settlement is divided into two major parts: connotation and extension (Figure 1).

The connotation of beautiful human settlements, beautiful human settlements refers to the harmonious development of human–Earth relationship within a certain time and geographic space scale, including not only the overall beauty of the human settlements, but also the internal elements and subsystems, which is the concretization of “five-sphere integrated plan” in the field of the sciences of human settlements, and the core meaning is to create a sustainable, dynamic, beautiful human, beautiful society, beautiful living, beautiful support, beautiful environment, and systematized and integrated beautiful human settlements.

The extension of beautiful human settlements is a broad scope, which not only includes the integrated beautiful human settlements, but also includes the synergistic development of each system, coupled with the coordination of beautiful (Figure 1). Green water and green mountains but poor are not beautiful human settlements, tall buildings but a lot of debt is not a beautiful human settlement; the only beautiful human settlements is human, social, residential, support, the coordinated development of the environment, high-quality development, and “five-sphere integrated plan”.

Beautiful human settlements expansion: beautiful human settlements not only include beautiful real human settlements; with the arrival of the information age, the era of self-media, with people closely related to the Weibo, WeChat, Facebook, Twitter, and other pseudo human settlements also need to be beautiful, people’s hearts and minds need more beautiful imagery in human settlements, so as to form a beautiful reality, pseudo-imagery, the “three-state entirety” of beautiful human settlements [67].

In addition, due to the differences in natural and social elements, the beautiful urban settlement and the beautiful rural settlement need to be treated differently and guided by categories in the evaluation and research process, so as to finally form a beautiful human settlement with the integration of “urban and rural”.

2.2. Theoretical Basis

At present, global environmental problems are intensifying, and environmental pollution and resource shortage have become contradictions between human and land that are difficult to alleviate. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the importance of ecological civilization in the reports of the 18th and 19th National Congresses, and sustainable development has been widely responded to. As the world’s largest developing country, China has been actively involved in environmental management and the theory of harmonious symbiosis between human and land has become an important theoretical basis for the construction of beautiful human settlements.

The evolutionary process of the human–Earth relationship has gone through a long historical period, from the initial emphasis on the environment playing a decisive role in social development, to the contingent theory emphasizing the ability of human choice, and then the emergence of views such as ecological theory, until, when problems such as environmental degradation, increased pollution, and resource shortage emerged, people also put forward the view of sustainable development [69], focusing more on the relationship between the current problems faced by humans and the geographical environment the intrinsic linkage [70]. It is true that these problems are also important issues to be solved in the construction of beautiful human settlements, and only by continuously solving these problems can a healthy and harmonious relationship be maintained between humans and their living environment.

The theory of harmonious symbiosis between human and land elaborates on the relationship between ecology, society, and economic environment, and believes that the goal of coordination should be to strive for the harmonious development of population, resources, environment, and society on the basis of rational use of resources and ensuring the sustainable use of resources. The construction of beautiful human settlements is the concrete practice of the theory of harmonious coexistence of human and land in the field of human living environment.

The theory of harmonious symbiosis between human and land is the theoretical basis for the construction of beautiful human settlements, which is in line with the development trend and the call of the times of today’s society and is also the core of today’s geography research. Under the guidance of this theory, the research methods are constantly updated, focusing on the study of the coupling of human–land relationship [71], the establishment of the human–land system model [72], and the pseudo human settlements or three-state human settlement [73,74]. Beautiful human settlements should also take the theory of harmonious symbiosis between human and land as the theoretical basis, conform to nature, respect the laws, and protect the environment, so that the construction of ecological civilization and political, economic, cultural, and social construction can be integrated and developed, and the construction of beautiful human settlements can move to a higher level.

2.3. Theoretical Framework

Based on the connotation, extension, expansion, and deepening of beautiful human settlements, the overall theoretical framework of “five-sphere integrated plan”, “three-state comprehensive”, and “urban–rural duality integration” is formed, and the key systems of human, social, housing, support, and environment are used as the basic framework of beautiful human settlements. The basic framework of beautiful human settlements is based on key systems such as human, social, housing, support, and environment, and the beauty of population system, residential system, social system, support system and environmental system constitute the “beauty of five aspects” of beautiful human settlements; the reality, pseudo, and imagery constitute the “beauty of three-state entirety” of beautiful human settlements: “The beauty of the three-state entirety; the beauty of the beautiful city and the beautiful countryside, which constitute the beauty of the beautiful human settlements of urban and rural integration of the “duality of beauty”. For different cities, the construction of beautiful human settlements should be constructed scientifically, taking into account the differences of different regions, and the overall construction and zoning planning development goals of beautiful human settlements should be formulated according to local conditions, so as to create a characteristic road of beautiful human settlements.

Geography is a comprehensive and regionally different discipline, and the construction of beautiful human settlements also has the above characteristics in the region, which makes geography an important support for the construction of beautiful human settlements, and geographers should plan the construction of beautiful human settlements from different perspectives such as ecology and economy and combine with contemporary emerging technologies. From a comprehensive point of view, the construction of beautiful human settlements involves many aspects such as humanistic and natural elements, and these elements have their own unique internal links, and the study of geography has different scales, so that it can conduct a more comprehensive study on the construction of beautiful human settlements from different perspectives such as time, space, and system, and dig the internal links among the elements from a deeper perspective to meet the requirements of “five-sphere integrated plan” overall layout. The overall layout of the “five-sphere integrated plan” requires the synergistic development of human, society, residence, support, and environment. From the point of view of differences, the geographical landscape of each region has its unique features, which makes it necessary to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each region, the characteristics of the natural environment, and the management of relevant policies and systems in a particular region, so as to propose scientific and effective construction of a beautiful human settlements in this region, so that the construction of each region has its unique advantages, to create the road of beautiful human settlements construction with regional characteristics.

Therefore, the construction of beautiful human settlements should adhere to the overall layout of “five-sphere integrated plan”, “three-state entirety”, and “urban–rural binary fusion”, on the basis of rational use of resources and ensuring the sustainable use of resources, so that the synergistic development of five systems, three-state comprehensive development, and urban–rural duality integration development. On the basis of rational use of resources and sustainable use of resources, the five systems should be developed in a coordinated manner, the three-state entirety should be developed in a comprehensive manner, and the urban-rural duality should be integrated, the theory of harmonious symbiosis of human and land should be the theoretical basis, the general requirements of the construction of beautiful China should be the foundation, the relevant system should be built throughout, the comprehensive and regional differences in the construction of beautiful human settlements should be the focus, the problems of different regions in the construction of beautiful human settlements should be diagnosed, and the local conditions should be taken into account to put forward beautiful human settlements resources with local characteristics. It also makes recommendations on the development of a beautiful human settlements with local characteristics.

3. Research Methods and Data Sources

3.1. Evaluation Index System

Based on the connotation and extension of beautiful human settlements, theoretical framework, based on the Ecological Civilization Construction Assessment Target System, Scientific Evaluation Standards For Livable Cities, etc., and with reference to the existing research results of scholars, we construct a comprehensive index system of beautiful human settlements consisting of five comprehensive index layers including population system, residential system, social system, support system, environmental system, and 42 specific indicators, with numerical values representing weight, and the index attributes are described in positive and negative directions.

3.2. Data Sources

The data are mainly from the Liaoning Provincial Statistical Yearbook 2010–2019, the environmental quality bulletin of the three northeastern provinces 2010–2020, the statistical yearbook of each city in the three northeastern provinces, the spatial analysis base map and other data from the geographic information database. In Figure 2, 1 represents average number of students in colleges and universities per 100,000 people, 2 represents domestic waste removal and transportation per 10,000 people (ton), 3 represents number of beds in medical institutions per 1000 population (PCs), 4 represents daily urban sewage treatment capacity (10,000 m³),5 represents proportion of area for sale in total area of commercial housing (%).

3.3. Research Methods

(1) Entropy Weighting: Firstly, the raw data of each index are standardized.

$$x_{ij}^{\prime }=\{\begin{array}{c}\frac{x_{ij}-min\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}}{max\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}-min\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}}\\ \frac{max\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}-x_{ij}}{max\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}-min\left\{x_{1j},\dots ,x_{nj}\right\}}\end{array}$$

(1)

Next, the weight of the ith sample value under the jth indicator to the indicator pij is calculated, the entropy value ej of the jth indicator is calculated respectively, and then the weight wj of each indicator is calculated, and finally the composite score of each sample is calculated (where xij is the standardized data):

$$s_i={\displaystyle \sum }_{j=1}^m{w}_j{x}_{ij}, i=1,\dots ,n$$

(2)

(2) Geographic Probe: In this paper, we use Geographic Probe to quantify the impact of drivers on the construction of beautiful human settlements, with the formula

$$q=1-\frac{1}{N{\sigma }^2}{\displaystyle \sum }_{h=1}^L{N}_h{\delta }_h^2$$

(3)

The larger the value of q, the stronger the explanatory power of the driving factor X on the quality of beautiful human settlements Y, and the weaker the opposite; q = 1, which means that the driving factor X completely explains the distribution of the quality of beautiful human settlements; q = 0, which means that there is no relationship between them.

(3) Kernel Density Estimation: Kernel density estimation is a common nonparametric method to describe the distribution pattern of a random variable with a continuous density profile, which has now become an important tool for studying the non-equilibrium of spatial distribution. Assuming that the density function of the random variable X is f(x), the probability density at point x can be expressed as

$$f\left(x\right)=\frac{1}{Nh}{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{i=1}^{N}K\left(\frac{X_i-x}{h}\right)$$

(4)

where, k is a kernel function, which is widely used by the geographical community as a Gaussian kernel function estimation. At the same time, the following formulas and logical conditions should also be met:

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{x\to \infty }{lim}K\left(x\right)\cdot x=0\\ K\left(x\right)\ge 0,{{\displaystyle \int }}_{-\infty }^{+\infty }K\left(x\right)\mathrm{d}x=1\\ supK\left(x\right)<+\infty \end{array}$$

(5)

The optimal bandwidth, the formula is: $h=1.06Se\times N^{-1/5}$, where Se is the standard deviation of random variable observations. In terms of the use of software methods, Stata, a mathematical statistics software, can use the code to calculate the results and draw the result graph. The kernel density estimation distribution map can reflect the information of location, morphology and extension of variable distribution. The location information can be used to illustrate the quality of beautiful human settlements; the morphological information can be used to analyze the size of spatial differences and the degree of polarization of beautiful human settlements.

4. Result Analysis

Supported by the theoretical framework of beautiful human settlements construction and taking the five systems of population, residential, society, support, and environment as the entry point, we use entropy power method, kernel density estimation method, geographic probe, and spatial analysis techniques to measure the beautiful human settlements quality of 14 cities in Liaoning Province. We analyze the space–time patterns and system characteristics of the construction of beautiful human settlements in 14 prefectural-level cities in Liaoning Province, quantify the driving mechanisms, and provide useful support for the interdisciplinary development of human settlements and the localization of beautiful China.

4.1. Time Differentiation

(1) Overall trend. In 2009–2018, the Liaoning province beautiful human settlements score fluctuates, showing a fluctuating upward trend, as shown in (Figure 3): the average value of beautiful human settlements quality rose from 0.28 in 2009 to 0.30 in 2018, and there are two peak values in which are 0.354 in 2014 and 0.352 in 2015. Analyzing the reasons for the increase of the average value in 2014, it can be seen that the scores of six cities, Dandong, Jinzhou, Yingkou, Tieling, Chaoyang, and Huludao, in 2014 are greater than those in 2013 and 2015, and using the analysis of the backward method of objectives, it can be seen that the scores of the residential system in Dandong and Jinzhou are higher, mainly in the ratio of residential sales area to commercial housing sales area, the ratio of residential sales to commercial housing sales, and the ratio of the sales area of commercial houses to the total area of commercial houses. Analysis of the reasons for the increase in the average value in 2015 shows that the scores of six cities, namely Shenyang, Benxi, Liaoyang, Panjin, Fushun, and Fuxin, were higher in 2015 than in 2014 and 2016, among which the score of social system in Fushun was much larger than the scores in 2014 and 2016, and it is known through the backward targeting method that the indicators such as the ratio of science and technology expenditure and consumer price index in Fushun in 2015 were higher than those in 2014 and 2016 and 2016 have obvious advantages.

(2) The construction quality is clustered from low to high levels. Using Gaussian kernel density estimation method to measure the kernel density estimation map of beautiful human settlements quality of each city from 2009 to 2018 (Figure 4), it can be seen from the results that (i) the center of the kernel density function pushes to the right with time, which indicates that the beautiful human settlements quality is gradually improving with time. (ii) The peak of the function shows an increasing trend, which indicates that the beautiful human settlements quality of the decade. (iii) The area in the middle of the curve decreases and the trailing area on the right increases, which indicates that the development speed of beautiful human settlements is accelerating, and the construction level is gradually gathering from low level to high level.

(3) Stage-specific difference characteristics. In Liaoning Province, the average of beautiful human settlements quality from 2009–2015 has stage characteristics (Figure 3): in the first stage (2009–2014), the average score of this stage showed a steady increasing trend, from 0.280 in 2009 to 0.354 in 2014; in the second stage (2014–2015), the average beautiful human settlements score showed a small decrease, from 0.354 in 2014 to 0.352 in 2015; in the third stage (2015–2016), the average score of beautiful human settlements showed a significant decrease, from 0.352 in 2015 to 0.310 in 2016; the fourth stage (2016–2017), the average score of beautiful human settlements quality score showed a slight rebound trend, mainly from 0.31 in 2016 to 0.33 in 2017; the fifth stage (2017–2018), the beautiful human settlements quality score again showed a significant reduction trend, from 0.33 in 2017 to 0.30 in 2018.

Mechanism analysis: (i) First stage (2009–2014): the construction of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province in this stage is driven by the national policy: the 17th National Congress in 2007 “comprehensively revitalize the old industrial bases such as the northeast region and the Liaoning coastal economic belt development plan” in 2009, such that the economic development level of Liaoning Province has improved significantly, mainly because, in this stage, the average per capita GDP of Liaoning province increased from 34,547.21 yuan in 2009 to 58,141.68 yuan in 2014, so the construction level of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning province improved in this stage. (ii) The second stage (2014–2015): the construction level of beautiful human settlements has a small decreasing trend in this stage, mainly because the scores of population system, residential system and social system in 2015 are higher than those of the other two stages. In 2015, the scores of population system, residential system, and social system decreased compared with those of 2014, and it can be traced to specific indicators, such as the increase of population ratio over 60 years old and the decrease of the average number of students in higher education schools per 100,000 population in 2015. (iii) The third stage (2015–2016): the quality of beautiful human settlements in this stage showed a significant decrease trend, mainly because, except for the environmental system. This makes only the score of Dalian City in Liaoning Province did not decrease, thus causing a significant decrease in the quality of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province in 2015–2016. (iv) Phase 4 (2016–2017): the improvement of the score of beautiful human settlements in this phase is mainly shown in that, except for the population system, the scores of other four systems have increased Score of population system only decreased by 0.011, which did not have a significant impact on the overall upward trend. (v) Phase 5 (2017–2018): In this phase, the scores of all five systems except for the support system showed a decreasing trend, so the overall quality of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province showed a decreasing trend.

Discrete degree characteristics. In 2009–2018, the Liaoning Province beautiful human settlements quality score overall standard deviation (Figure 3) showed a fluctuating upward trend, from 0.09 in 2009 to 0.12 in 2018. In the first stage (2009–2012), the overall standard deviation of Liaoning Province score showed a straight line downward trend. In the second stage (2012–2016), the overall standard deviation of Liaoning province’s score showed an increasing trend, mainly from 0.08 in 2012 to 0.12 in 2016. In the third stage (2016–2017), the overall standard deviation showed a decreasing trend, mainly from 0.08 in 2016 to 0.12 in 2018. The overall standard deviation in this stage is increasing, mainly from 0.12 in 2016 to 0.10 in 2017; in the fourth stage (2017–2018), the overall standard deviation in this stage is increasing, mainly from 0.10 in 2017 to 0.12 in 2018. It can be seen from the increase of the overall standard deviation and the increase of the gap that the first stage (2009–2012), the third stage (2016–2017), the gap between the 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province is narrowing; while in the second stage (2012–2016) and the fourth stage (2017–2018), the gap between the cities in Liaoning Province is increasing in both stages.

4.2. Spatial Differentiation

(1) Regional divergence characteristics. In 2009–2018, there are obvious regional divergence characteristics in the quality of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province. According to the overall spatial planning of Liaoning Province and the previous research results, with each region colored according to the values, as shown in Figure 5, it is mainly seen that southern Liaoning region (Dalian and Yingkou) had the highest average score of 0.42 in the construction of beautiful human settlements in 10 years, and the scores of northern Liaoning (Shenyang, Tieling, and Fushun) and central Liaoning (Liaoyang, Benxi, and Anshan) regions are similar and fluctuate around 0.35. The average score of eastern Liaoning (Dandong) and western Liaoning (Jinzhou, Huludao, Panjin, Chaoyang, Fuxin) is less than 0.30. During the 10-year period from 2009 to 2018, the quality of beautiful human settlements in different regions fluctuated to different degrees, mainly in the following ways: 0.001 in western Liaoning, 0.029 in eastern Liaoning, 0.027 in southern Liaoning, and 0.027 in northern Liaoning. The construction quality of beautiful human settlements in different regions during the 10-year period from 2009 to 2018 is different, mainly showing 0.001 in western Liaoning, 0.029 in eastern Liaoning, 0.027 in southern Liaoning, 0.034 in northern Liaoning, and 0.027 in central Liaoning.

It can be seen that there are obvious regional divergence characteristics and large gaps in the quality of beautiful human settlements among regions in Liaoning Province. Mechanism analysis: (i) The northern Liaoning and southern Liaoning regions, with Shenyang and Dalian as the leading cities, have greater advantages in both the social system and the support system, mainly in the following ways: Shenyang and Dalian are always in the top two of the 14 cities in each indicator of the social system, while Yingkou, the second largest city in southern Liaoning, also has obvious advantages in the scores of urban registered unemployment rate and other indicators; while both cities in central Liaoning region, Benxi and Anshan, have the steel industry as the dominant industry in both cities of central Liaoning, which makes the environmental system score of Central Liaoning lower. However, the scores of three systems, including population system, social system, and support system, are only behind those of southern Liaoning and northern Liaoning, so the overall quality score of central Liaoning is also slightly behind that of northern Liaoning. Therefore, the average score of beautiful human settlements quality in southern Liaoning, northern Liaoning, and central Liaoning is higher during 2009–2018. (ii) Western Liaoning region, represented by Jinzhou, has the highest score of population system and environmental system, but its scores of support, environmental, and social system are all much lower than those of southern Liaoning, northern Liaoning, and central Liaoning, so the quality of beautiful human settlements is lower. During 2009–2018, the average score of beautiful human settlements quality of western Liaoning region shows an upward trend, increasing from 0.24 in 2009 to 0.29 in 2018, and eastern Liaoning, represented by Dandong, has a high score in environmental system and a low score in both population system and social system, which respond to people’s happiness life index and socioeconomic development, but the beautiful human settlements quality showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2009 to 2018, increasing from 0.22 in 2009 to 0.23.

(2) Inverted “U” shape structure characteristics. From the average score of beautiful human settlements quality of each region in Liaoning Province from 2009 to 2018, it can be seen that the development level of eastern and western regions of Liaoning Province is more consistent from east to west during this 10-year period, mainly showing that the average of human settlements construction quality of eastern Liaoning region is 0.26, while that of western Liaoning region is 0.28, with a small difference between the two regions. From the north–south direction, the construction quality of central Liaoning region is lower than that of northern Liaoning and southern Liaoning, showing a positive “U” shape structure with inward depression. The quality of beautiful human settlements in southern Liaoning and northern Liaoning is at the forefront of regional development in the past 10 years (Figure 5). The average score of the central Liaoning region is 0.32, which is higher than that of eastern Liaoning and western Liaoning regions, and shows a decreasing feature from the center to the two sides.

(3) With the spatial distribution pattern of “double core” and “ternary”, Liaoning Province has been developing most rapidly with Shenyang and Dalian City, which have been in the forefront of the development of Liaoning Province as the “double core” and become two economic development centers. In 2018, the per capita GDP of Shenyang City reached 75,766.00 yuan, and Dalian City reached 109,644.00 yuan. The construction of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province has a spatial distribution of ternary, mainly manifested in the core area of beautiful human settlements composed of Shenyang and Dalian, and the core area of beautiful human settlements composed of Shenyang and Dalian. The core area of beautiful human settlements construction, the development area of beautiful human settlements composed by Anshan, Benxi, Panjin, etc. and the starting area of beautiful human settlements composed by Chaoyang, Huludao and others.

Classification characteristics. Based on the theoretical framework of the beautiful human settlements and the relevant research foundation of predecessors, and used the natural breakpoint method of GIS to visualize the values (

Table 1. The comprehensive values of the beautiful human settlements in Liaoning province in 2009–2018.

	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Shenyang	0.476	0.478	0.513	0.490	0.633	0.637	0.648	0.642	0.592	0.555
Dalian	0.455	0.464	0.488	0.473	0.530	0.528	0.534	0.563	0.538	0.605
Panjin	0.382	0.432	0.430	0.484	0.397	0.389	0.390	0.378	0.433	0.401
Yingkou	0.299	0.312	0.340	0.371	0.358	0.377	0.354	0.286	0.321	0.319
Liaoyang	0.296	0.312	0.316	0.363	0.360	0.346	0.356	0.298	0.316	0.300
Anshan	0.294	0.326	0.325	0.332	0.349	0.324	0.365	0.293	0.341	0.279
Benxi	0.270	0.294	0.306	0.345	0.354	0.350	0.360	0.303	0.313	0.274
Fushun	0.245	0.260	0.283	0.273	0.322	0.320	0.324	0.263	0.289	0.251
Jinzhou	0.230	0.254	0.263	0.261	0.288	0.318	0.306	0.259	0.300	0.255
Dandong	0.216	0.222	0.255	0.260	0.287	0.296	0.277	0.237	0.288	0.226
Fuxin	0.196	0.225	0.249	0.252	0.259	0.279	0.292	0.225	0.238	0.197
Tieling	0.201	0.222	0.253	0.285	0.257	0.262	0.240	0.185	0.236	0.247
Huludao	0.186	0.210	0.231	0.263	0.263	0.283	0.254	0.222	0.243	0.213
Chaoyang	0.184	0.232	0.238	0.280	0.222	0.252	0.238	0.195	0.247	0.210

) of the beautiful human settlements, as shown in Figure 6, the level of beautiful human settlements construction in Liaoning province is divided into three levels. The first level is the core area of beautiful human settlements construction quality, mainly including Shenyang and Dalian, with the average quality score of beautiful human settlements from 2009 to 2018 of 0.57 and 0.52, respectively; the second level: the development area of beautiful human settlements: with the cities of Panjin, Yingkou, Liaoyang, Anshan, and Benxi as the main cities. The average score of beautiful human settlements quality is between 0.32 and 0.41; the third grade: beautiful human settlements starting area, the main cities are: Fushun, Jinzhou, Dandong, Fuxin, Tieling, Huludao, and Chaoyang cities. The average score of beautiful human settlements quality is less than 0.30.

(4) The inter-city construction quality gap narrowed. The kernel density of 14 cities during the 10-year period was measured (Figure 7). From the results, it can be seen that (i) from the distribution position, the distribution position of Shenyang and Dalian is to the right, which indicates that the construction quality scores of the two cities are higher during the 10-year period; while the position of Chaoyang and Huludao is relatively to the left, which indicates that the construction quality of the two cities is lower. (ii) As a whole, the peaks of Shenyang and Dalian are smaller and wider, indicating that the gap between the construction quality of beautiful human settlements in the two cities is smaller during the ten-year period. The peak of Panjin is higher and the width is narrower, which indicates that the construction quality of beautiful human settlements in Panjin changed a lot during the decade. (iii) From the shape, the kernel density maps of Fuxin and Huludao are more similar, which indicates that the quality of the construction of the settlement is similar in both cities.

4.3. System Analysis

(1) System divergence characteristics. The average scores of beautiful human settlements in the five major systems of 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province from 2009 to 2018 show system divergence characteristics, as shown in Figure 8, specifically in the higher scores in the residential system, environmental system, and social system, and lower scores in the population system and support system, with systemic divergence characteristics.

(2) Systematic temporal divergence. From the 2009–2018 beautiful human settlements graph (Figure 8), it can be seen that the environmental system, support system, and social system all show a fluctuating upward trend, mainly showing that the score of environmental system increased from 0.452 to 0.462, the score of support system increased from 0.245 to 0.324, and the score of social system increased from 0.232 to 0.272, with the score of support system. The support system score has increased the most. This indicates that the economic construction and environmental construction as well as infrastructure construction in Liaoning Province have improved during this decade. Deeper mechanism analysis: (i) In the support system, the scores of urban sewage daily treatment capacity, city gas penetration rate, and the proportion of Internet users to total households in the support system have all increased significantly between 2009 and 2018, among which the proportion of Internet users to total households increased significantly from 0.32 in 2009 to 0.76 in 2018, reflecting the improvement of Liaoning province’s facility construction level has improved. (ii) For the social system, except for the decrease in the index of gross product, all other indicators of the social system showed an upward trend in scores, and the indicators involving residents’ work income, such as urban registered unemployment rate, per capita disposable income of urban residents, and average annual salary of on-the-job workers. The per capita disposable income of urban residents and the average annual wages of employees on the job all increased substantially, reflecting the improvement of residents’ income in Liaoning Province. (iii) Environmental system: the score of environmental system shows a fluctuating upward trend, reaching a peak of 0.584 in 2017, among which the green area per capita improved compared with previous years, mainly showing a change from 9.3 square meters in 2009 to 11.94 square meters in 2017, while the population system and the residential system show a fluctuating downward trend, mainly as follows: (i) the population system score dropped from 0.298 in 2009 to 0.242 in 2018, which became the lowest score in 10 years and much lower than the average of other years. (ii) Residential system scores showed a linear upward trend in 2009–2013, a linear downward trend in 2014–2016, a slight recovery to 2017, and a decline again in 2017–2018. Deeper mechanism analysis: (i) Population system, the average of population ratio over 60 years old in 14 prefecture-level cities of Liaoning province increased from 0.16 in 2009 to 0.25 in 2018, while the percentage of minor population decreased from 0.15 in 2009 to 0.13 in 2018, which reflects the serious aging of population and the low number of teenagers in Liaoning province, so the population system score declined. (ii) Residential system, although the values of housing area per capita and residential sales area to commercial housing sales area in the residential system increased from 2009 to 2018, the score trended down in the indicator of area for sale to commercial housing construction area ratio, so the score of residential system decreased.

System regional heterogeneity. The five major systems have system regional divergence among the 14 prefecture-level cities, mainly in Shenyang, Dalian, and Panjin relative to other regions, while for other cities, the divergence is mainly in the support system and social system. Specifically, (i) the analysis of population system, the difference between the maximum and minimum values of population system in Liaoning Province from 2009 to 2018 is 0.490, and the variance is 0.015, which indicates that the development of population system in Liaoning Province is more balanced among cities. (ii) Residential system analysis, the difference between the maximum and minimum values of residential system in Liaoning Province is 0.491 with a variance of 0.015, which indicates that the differences between residential systems in Liaoning Province are small and the development is more balanced. (iii) Social system analysis, the difference between the maximum and minimum values of social system in Liaoning Province is 0.726, and the variance is 0.036, which are the largest values among the five major systems, indicating that in terms of social system, the development among cities in Liaoning Province is extremely uneven with large variability. (iv) Support system analysis, the difference between the maximum and minimum value of Liaoning support system is 0.606, and the variance is 0.018, which indicates that there is also a large variability and unbalanced development in Liaoning Province in terms of support system. (v) Environmental system analysis, the difference between the maximum and minimum values of environmental system in Liaoning Province is 0.495, with a variance of 0.016. The degree of regional variation is small, indicating that the environmental system of cities in Liaoning Province is more balanced.

According to the differences of system construction in each city (Figure 9), the construction of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province is divided into three types: (i) Support system-led rising type: Tieling belongs to this type, only the score of support system in this city increased in 10 years, all other system scores decreased, but the total construction score increased. (ii) Dual-system guide up type: Shenyang, Dalian, Fuxin, Liaoyang, and Chaoyang belong to this type. (iii) Multi-system guided upward type: Fushun, Benxi, Dandong, Jinzhou, Yingkou, Panjin, and Huludao belong to this type. This type of city has 3–4 systems with fluctuating upward trend in scores during the decade, and the quality of construction of each system is improved more comprehensively. (iv) Multi-system score decline type: Anshan belongs to this type. Only the score of supporting system in Anshan increased, while the scores of other systems decreased, resulting in a decrease in the total score.

Reference analysis of the regional differentiation mechanism of the system: (i) As the “twin cores” of Liaoning Province, Shenyang and Dalian drive the economic development of Liaoning Province, so the scores of Shenyang and Dalian in the social system and support system are much higher than those of other cities, mainly in the average annual wages of employees in each region, per capita GDP, average number of students in higher education per 100,000 population, etc. The average number of students enrolled in higher education per 100,000 population and other indicators have a strong advantage. (ii) The population system has the least variation, mainly in that each city has a small variation in indicators such as the percentage of underage population, and the residential system, as a reflection of the human living environment, also has a small variation. (iii) Environmental system has some variability, because the good or bad infrastructure construction of a city, such as the ability to treat sewage capacity and others will affect the environmental quality of this city, and the support system has a large variability, which also determines to a certain extent that there is also variability in the environmental system of each city.

(4) System construction quality score evolution. Based on the kernel density estimation method, this paper measured the evolution of the system distribution with space in 14 cities (Figure 10), and the results show that: (i) the kernel density plots of the residential system and the environmental system show an obvious single-peaked distribution, while the other three systems show a bimodal distribution. (ii) From the distribution position, the peaks of the population system, the social system, and the support system are on the left, indicating that the average city scores of these three systems are low; while the peaks of the residential system and environmental systems are on the right, indicating that the scores of these two systems are higher. (iii) As a whole, the widths of the kernel density functions of the environmental system and the residential system are smaller, indicating that the differences between cities are smaller. (iv) The kernel density plot of the residential system is closest to the right side, indicating that the residential system has the highest score; the kernel density plot of the support system is closest to the left side, indicating that the support system has the lowest score.

4.4. Mechanism Analysis

4.4.1. Factor Analysis

Based on the analysis in

Table 2. The driving factor of the beautiful human settlements in Liaoning province in 2009–2018.

Index	2009	2012	2015	2018
$x_1$	0.3578	0.0795	0.4062	0.2307
$x_2$	0.5053	0.5272	0.6621	0.9458
$x_3$	0.4228	0.4320	0.3597	0.8755
$x_4$	0.8832	0.5337	0.4200	0.3461
$x_5$	0.8409	0.9670	0.7943	0.9764
$x_6$	0.2051	0.7913	0.5642	0.3661
$x_7$	0.7025	0.4995	0.8666	0.8326
$x_8$	0.7984	0.6988	0.5175	0.8377
$x_9$	0.8875	0.2827	0.3021	0.1718
$x_{10}$	0.3806	0.2371	0.2829	0.4887

, the factors that dominate 2009 are the proportion of employed workers to the total population, housing floor area per capita, gross product per capita, the proportion of Internet users to the total number of households, and park area per capita. The factors that dominate 2012 are the proportion of employed workers to the total population, housing floor area per capita, gross product per capita, the proportion of Internet users to the total number of households, and park area per capita, green space area. The leading factors in 2015 are the ratio of the number of employees to the total population, housing construction area per capita, gross product per capita, daily urban sewage treatment capacity, and park green area per capita. The leading factors in 2018 are the ratio of the number of employees to the total population, urban population density, gross product per capita, number of Internet users to the total number of households, and average annual precipitation. The analysis shows that the ratio of the number of employed workers to the total population and the per capita gross product are always the dominant factors for the quality of beautiful human settlements in the four time sections.

4.4.2. System Analysis

Based on the analysis in

Table 3. The driving system of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning province in 2009–2018.

System	2009	2012	2015	2018
Population system	0.4945	0.3890	0.4891	0.5217
Residential system	0.5768	0.4949	0.2923	0.3295
Social system	0.5720	0.5331	0.6467	0.5897
Support system	0.5821	0.4700	0.6117	0.6178
Environmental system	0.3943	0.2955	0.2507	0.2634

, it is clear that the driving system in 2009 and 2018 is the support system; in 2012 and 2015, the driving system is the social system. To sum up, the social system and the support system are the biggest driving sources of the quality of beautiful human settlements. (i) The population system is mainly driven by indicators such as the ratio of the number of employed workers to the total population and is a positive driver. (ii) The residential system is mainly driven by indicators such as housing floor area per capita and is a positive driver. (iii) The social system is mainly driven by indicators such as gross domestic product per capita and is a positive driver. (iv) The support system is mainly driven by the ratio of the number of Internet users to the total number of households. (v) The environmental system is mainly driven by indicators such as parkland area per capita.

(1) The economic strength of cities is the cornerstone of beautiful human settlements construction, and the different economic strength causes the variability of beautiful human settlements construction in time and space. (i) Temporal differentiation. The beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province showed a fluctuating upward trend in 2009–2018 in general, and there were peak values in 2014 and 2015. From the index system, the social system scores of Yingkou, Fuxin, and Huludao cities in 2014 have improved significantly compared with the previous years, so the score of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province in a comprehensive view has been improved. (ii) Spatial differentiation. The main reason is that Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province and Dalian is the second most developed city in Liaoning Province, so the Liaoning north and Liaoning south regions, which are dominated by them, have higher advantages in all systems, while Benxi and Anshan City, as the leading industry, is not as well built as the other four regions in terms of environmental systems, but it is still second only to the southern Liaoning and northern Liaoning regions in terms of overall score of beautiful human settlements, with a decreasing trend from the center to both sides.

(2) The human demand and choice factors become the most fundamental driving force for the quality of beautiful human settlements. The influence of the demographic system is also relatively stable, with the social system score reflecting economic life showing a fluctuating upward trend from 2009 to 2018. Tracing back to deeper indicators shows that the average per capita disposable income of urban permanent residents in Liaoning Province reached 33,380.21 yuan in 2018, a significant increase from 2009. The increase in disposable income of residents also inevitably leads to an increase in their needs, which are mainly reflected in various aspects such as demand for the environment, education, and healthcare, etc. The support system from 2009 to 2018 also had the largest increase among the five systems, with an increase in specific indicators such as the number of beds in medical institutions per 1000 people reflecting healthcare. This also reflects that human need and choices drive the quality of a city’s beautiful human settlements, and the quality of a city’s beautiful human settlements affects the needs and choices of people in that area.

(3) Housing and other infrastructure construction is the support for the construction of beautiful human settlements. The residential system has a stable influence and going back to the original indexes shows that the average housing floor area per capita grew from 25.84 m² in 2009 to 30.56 m² in 2018; the percentage of residential sales also grew from 0.83 in 2009 to 0.88 in 2018. This reflects that the relevant housing subsidy policies introduced in Liaoning Province have solved people’s basic housing problems at the same time, it has stimulated people’s consumption in housing and driven economic growth.

(4) The use of emerging technologies is a new type of driving force. The influence of the indicator of the proportion of Internet users to total users is relatively stable, which reflects Liaoning Province’s efforts to develop a modern Internet industry system as proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan, making the use of emerging technologies such as the Internet a new type of driver, stimulating the development of related industries, facilitating people’s lives, and improving their quality of life.

5. Discussion and Policy Implications

Through the study of spatio-temporal laws and system divergence driving mechanisms of beautiful human settlements from 2009 to 2018, it can be concluded that the economic strength of cities is an important weight to measure the level of beautiful human settlements, while people are also very important in the construction of beautiful human settlements, and the influence of people on the scores of five systems is non-negligible.

The study on the spatio-temporal laws and driving mechanisms of beautiful human settlements in 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province is of practical significance to the construction of urban development and ecological civilization. It is the concrete implementation of the Northeast Revitalization Strategy, and the construction of beautiful human settlements also has theoretical supplementary significance to the scientific research of urban geography and human-land environment. The following issues must still be explored in the future:

(1) Urban–rural binary fusion: the future research scale should integrate urban and rural areas, respond to the call of rural revitalization strategy, and form a beautiful human settlement with duality integration of urban and rural areas.

(2) Beautiful three-state human settlements: The research perspective gradually shifts from the real human settlements in the urbanization era to the three-state entirety of beautiful human settlements, such as the pseudo human settlements in the informationization era and the imaginary human settlements in the civilization era, and explores its interaction mechanism and spatio-temporal laws.

(3) The five-sphere integrated plan beautiful human settlements with “people” as the core: the research perspective should ensure the coupled and coordinated development of the five systems, and at the same time, we should also consider the structure, demand, and behavior of people in the beautiful human settlements.

Based on the theoretical framework, spatio-temporal laws and driving mechanism of beautiful human settlements, we propose the following local suggestions for the construction of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province:

(4) Adhere to the overall layout of five-sphere integrated plan with people as the core and economy as the foundation, and take into account the problems of talent and population loss while promoting economic development. At the same time, take into account the problems of talent and population loss, improve the quality of the population, and enhance the attractiveness of talent.

(5) Pay attention to the integrated development of urban–rural duality, while developing a livable city, actively respond to the call of the rural revitalization strategy, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and create a beautiful countryside with characteristics.

(6) Create beautiful three-state human settlements: while focusing on the construction of the real human settlements, we should also focus on the construction and development of the pseudo human settlements in the information age, “the city is the people’s city”, more attention should be paid to the needs, expectations, imagery, etc. of the general public on the human settlements; the overall is to form coordinated, diversified, and three-dimensional beautiful human settlements.

6. Conclusions

The framework of urban–rural binary fusion, three-state entirety, and five-sphere integrated plan beautiful human settlements is constructed, and the index system including population system, residential system, social system, support system, and environment system is established with the real beautiful human settlements as the entry point. Geographic probe and ArcGIS spatial analysis technology are used to calculate the scores of 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province in time, space, and system level, and explore the time process, spatial variation, system variation, and driving mechanism, so as to provide feasible suggestions for the construction of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province and provide vitality for the new round of northeast revitalization. The results show that:

(1) Temporal characteristics: the beautiful human settlements scores of 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning province showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2009 to 2018, and there are two peaks in 2014 and 2015; the overall standard deviation showed a fluctuating upward trend; Liaoning province can be roughly divided into three levels of regional development trends, such as the core area of beautiful human settlements represented by Shenyang, the core area of beautiful human settlements represented by Panjin, and the starting area of beautiful human settlements represented by Chaoyang.

(2) Spatial characteristics: from 2009 to 2018, the quality of beautiful human settlements in Liaoning Province showed regional differences, with a trend of higher in the north and south and lower in the east and west, and a characteristic of decreasing from southeast to northwest; the degree of fluctuation of urban construction quality was different, with the largest fluctuation in Liaoning north and the smallest fluctuation in Liaoning west; the distribution pattern showed a “double core” represented by Shenyang and Dalian and a “ternary” represented by core, development, and starting areas. The distribution pattern shows a “dicaryon” of Shenyang and Dalian and a “ternaryic” trend of core area, development area, and starting area.

(3) System analysis: from 2009 to 2018, the environmental system, support system, and social system all showed a fluctuating upward trend; on the spatial scale, the quality of social system and support system construction was more divergent, mainly manifested in the “ternary” dominant pattern led by Shenyang, Dalian, and Panjin; based on the status of each system score, cities were divided into four types: support system-led rising type, dual system-led rising type, multi-system-led rising type, and multi-system score declining type.

(4) Mechanism analysis: the social system is mainly driven by the factor of gross domestic product per capita, which becomes the most important driving system; the support system is mainly driven by the emerging factor of the proportion of Internet users to total households, which becomes an important driving system; the two together promote the construction of beautiful human settlements.