The research on patterns of rural settlements plays a significant role in understanding human-land relationship in traditional agriculture. As a typical area representing traditional agriculture, Ziquejie Rice Terrace at Shuizhe Town in Xinhua County of Hunan Province has been selected as our study area. Using high-resolution remote sensing images, this study extracts geo- information of rural settlements, rivers, roads, forests, and farmlands, from which the patterns of rural settlements in this terrace area have been developed. According to t...