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Rural settlements in Northeast China have undergone significant changes in the process of rapid urbanization, which has profoundly affected food production and the process of sustainable rural development. Based on multi-period remote sensing interpretation data of land use and economic statistics, this study quantitatively analyzes the temporal and spatial pattern change characteristics and influential factors of rural settlements in Northeast China from 2000 to 2020. The results show that: (i) Between 2000 and 2020, the area of rural settlements in Northeast China increased by 190,603.03 hectares, which accounts for 7.62% of the total rural settlements area, and 129 counties (cities) (70.88%) increased the area of rural settlements; (ii) The expanded state of rural settlements presents a low spatial distribution pattern in the northwest and high spatial distribution pattern in the southeast. The core density value of rural settlements in the north decreases, and the core density value in the southeast increases slightly. In addition, the landscape pattern of rural settlement expansion is irregular and there was increased disturbance from settlement expansion; (iii) A total of 81.6% of the land occupied by the expansion of rural settlements comes from cultivated land. The soil’s organic matter content is 10.0 g/kg–20.0 g/kg, and the high-quality cultivated land occupied by the expansion is 218,274.17 hectares. However, it is interesting that the expansion of rural settlements coincides with the increasing number of hollow villages. From 2000 to 2020, the utilization degree of rural settlements in Northeast China decreased by 56.97%; (v) The main factors affecting the changes of rural settlements in Northeast China are water resource conditions, terrain conditions, traffic location, and the level of county economic development. In areas with superior agricultural production conditions, the influence of various factors on the change of rural settlements is more obvious.
