Abstract: Abstract: The ecological environment of the sandy land of northern Yanchi is fragile, with disasters such as land desertification, drought and dust storms leading to a severe living environment. Therefore, the rural settlement in the region is quite different from other areas in China. To recognize the features of the evolution of the rural settlement and the affecting factors, we extracted the land use vector data from the interpretation of SPOT 5 remote sensing image in 2005 and ZY-1 O2C satellite image in 2012, with the interpretation accuracy of 90.1% and 90.7%, respectively. We used the data derived from field investigation, and adopted the methods of spatial metrics, spatial statistical measure model, geographic information system (GIS) hot cartography and geography detectors to quantitatively identify the spatial feature of rural settlements, and reveal the responses of spatial pattern differentiation of rural settlements to the natural topography, positional condition and social-economic development level. The results are as follows: 1) The scale of rural settlements in northern Yanchi was curtailed but the intensive degree was increased. The shape of rural settlements appeared to be simpler and more regular, and the distribution center of the rural settlement migrated towards the southeast direction. 2) The spatial distribution of aggregation was further strengthened, and the distribution density showed "dense inner and sparse outside" spatial characteristics. The "hot spot" area of settlement scale was largely unchanged, but the "cold spot" area demonstrated apparent rotation characteristics. 3) During the eight-year period, the rural settlements gradually approached the grassland, woodland, and were far away from the sand source area, suggesting that the tension between people and land has eased off, and the ecological living environment in the area is gradually optimized by human in a positive manner. 4) The spatial distribution of rural settlements in the study area was mainly influenced by natural topography and location conditions. Regional statistical analysis was conducted with the 1 km ( 1 km grid based on the geography detector model, and the determination index value of each influence factor for the spatial distribution of rural settlements was calculated respectively. The most significant factor for the spatial distribution of rural settlements was location conditions, which mainly showed the distance from the agriculture irrigation area, the distance from the sand source and the proximity degree of the town, and the rural settlement layout also showed a certain dependence on the natural environment conditions, whereas, the social economic level showed no significant influence on rural settlement layout. These results can provide policy guidance and scientific basis for the spatial layout optimization and regulation of rural settlement, the new rural construction planning and the sandy habitat environment amelioration in sandy land.