Abstract:It is important to identify the regional differences of the evolution model and the functional transformation of rural settlement driven by various influenced factors. This study explores the evolution model, the internal mechanism, and their regional differences of rural settlement driven by multiple backgrounds in typical peak-cluster depressions under different natural and social economic conditions over the past 50 years, especially the last 10 years. This was achieved by using high resolution remote sensing data from a long time series. The research result are as follows:(1)the distribution of rural settlement is influenced by the cropland, terrain, and roads, and there are regional differences in the coupling relationship between the increased areas of rural settlement hotspots and increased rural settlement patches; (2) there are agglomeration and uniform distribution trends in the evolution of the rural settlement pattern; (3) the regional differences of rural settlement characteristics and evolution stages in the study area are very clear; (4) the scale change, evolution stage, and evolution model of rural settlements in peak-cluster depression areas have some common features and some individual differences; and (5) the main driving forces behind evolution are the external factors and self-adjustment by the settlement farmers.