Abstract
The ancient town is a small town that has survived in history, and its traditional form is basically unchanged. The spatial form is a comprehensive result of the interaction of various human activities and natural environmental factors in a specific geographical environment and a certain stage of social and economic development. In recent years, some ancient towns have experienced the destruction of the traditional spatial structure, the disappearance of the sense of place, and the breaking of context in the process of economic development. How to not only inherit the historical context, but also meet the current development demands, and improve the connection between history, the present and the future, has become an urgent problem to be solved in the development process of the ancient town. The ancient town of Southern Shaanxi is located in the Qinba Mountains. The traditional buildings, ancient streets, and cultural relics left over to this day are rare living fossils of the traditional culture of Southern Shaanxi. They are typical and representative of China's excellent regional culture. From the perspective of its spatial distribution, the ancient towns of southern Shaanxi are mainly located on important transportation lines that pass through the Qinling Mountains and Bashan Mountains and connect the Guanzhong area with Sichuan and Hubei provinces. Judging from the historical background of the formation of the ancient town, historically busy shipping and commercial activities have greatly promoted the economic development of southern Shaanxi and the exchange and integration of multiple cultures, making the ancient town of southern Shaanxi form a landscape that brings together various architectural styles from the north to the south. In recent years, affected by the improvement of urbanization and the development of tourism, the spatial form of ancient towns in southern Shaanxi has developed disorderly and the layout of buildings has been chaotic. Through the quantitative comparative analysis of the spatial morphology of ancient towns in southern Shaanxi, it is possible to quantitatively compare and analyze the status quo and problems, and provide a scientific basis for the development guidance of the spatial morphology of different ancient towns. First of all, this article quantitatively analyzes the spatial form of the ancient town in southern Shaanxi from the aspects of physical boundary, spatial structure, and architectural space. The physical boundary is composed of the material elements at the edge of the ancient town. The author chooses the shape analysis index, the aspect ratio of the closed border graphics, and the compactness index to quantitatively analyze the physical boundary. Spatial structure is the material manifestation of the interaction between economic, social, and environmental factors at a certain time, including the location layout and interrelationship of different spatial factors. In terms of spatial structure, comparative analysis is mainly carried out from the aspects of land use (using indicators of land use mixing degree, different land use ratios) and streets (using indicators of fractal dimension, length and width, and degree of coordination). The building is the smallest unit of the space in the ancient town. It mainly selects the indicators of building density, courtyard space rate, direction, angle and area of the building unit for quantitative analysis. Secondly, on the basis of quantitative analysis, the paper analyzes the reasons for the differences in indicators between different ancient towns from the aspects of population, economy, and environment, and summarizes the experience and lessons. Finally, the author attempts to search for ways to improve the connectivity of history, present and future in the development of ancient towns, in order to provide references for the development of ancient towns at home and abroad.
