**6. Conclusions**

The spatial distribution pattern of rural development potential in the study area is centered on the central and southern urban development areas, gradually decreasing toward the peripheral areas. Villages with higher potential values are mainly located in the south and central parts of the district, whereas those with lower scores are mainly clustered in the northern fringe of Shapingba District. In the four sub-dimensions, a significant pattern of regional differentiation was observed. Based on the comprehensive development potential of villages, a total of 38 administrative villages in the district are divided into four types, namely, core planning area, important planning area, general planning area, and basic control area, with the proportion of the four types of areas being 13.16%, 52.63%, 23.68%, and 10.53%, respectively. Based on the completed village planning projects, our group draws experience from practical work, clarifies the development characteristics and directions of different types of villages, and implements differentiated development strategies. In village planning, the villages are divided by development potential. The different types of villages should contain different planning contents. The core planning area with the highest village development potential should contain the most comprehensive planning contents, and the village planning of the important planning area, the general planning area and the basic control area have gradually decreased in detail, in order to realize the effective gathering and optimization of elements and promote the orderly development of villages.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.C. and C.W.; methodology, J.C.; software, J.C.; validation, J.C., R.D. and Y.S.; formal analysis, J.C.; investigation, J.C.; resources, M.J.; data curation, J.C.; writing— original draft preparation, J.C.; R.D.; writing—review and editing, J.C.; visualization, J.C.; supervision, C.W.; S.X.; project administration, C.W.; funding acquisition, C.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by National Key R&D Program of China, gran<sup>t</sup> number 2018YFD1100804-03.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** We gratefully acknowledge the Planning and Natural Resources Bureau of the Shapingba District for giving us the permission to use related data.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
