濁口溪流域屬於魯凱族下三社群居住的區域，歷史上曾出現過許多聚落，本文主要探討地理環境因子對這些聚落時空延續 (存在時序、戶數規模) 發展的影響。前述聚落皆屬於集村形態，但坐落的地理條件各不相同，歷史進展中也各有殊異的命運，在不斷的移動、合併之後最終僅剩下茂林、多納、萬山三個聚落。在時間延續方面，聚落規模越大，持續發展到近代的機會便越大，此可能因為聚落規模趨大，對於各種環境衝擊的容忍度也會增高，較少因為單一事件而造成聚落的覆滅或捨棄，進一步增加聚落邁向更近代發展的可能性。各項地理環境因子與聚落存在的時序並無明顯的關係；而在空間拓展方面，地理環境因子對聚落規模發展的影響也只表現在海拔及朝向兩個因子上，亦即海拔越高，聚落的規模越小，以及朝向南方的聚落比較有機會發展成較大的規模，此可能與獲取較高生產能量與較佳物環生活品質有關，至於地形、坡度、是否鄰近小河流、地形安全性等因子雖可能為聚落帶來物質面向或精神面向的滿足，但並不會影響聚落規模的發展。

Zhoukou River basin is the area where Zhoukou groups, one of Rukai Tribes, live. Through the history, many settlements apprared here, too. This paper mainly discusses the differences of the geographic factors in the tribal development throughout time and space (existing sequence and settlement scope ). All settlements in Zhoukou River basin were collective village, but their geographic conditions were very different, and they also had different fate in the history. Through the unceasing migration and mergence, at the last, only three settlements have been left: Maga, Opunoho and Kindavan. The settlements had bigger scale, and they had more opportunity to develop till nowadays. Because of the bigger scale, the settlements may have higher tolerance for different impacts from environment. On the other hand, the settlements had more possibilities to expand, but not to be ruined or abandon due to a single event. There is no obvious relation between each geographic factors and the sequence of settlements left, but in the space expansion, just two geographic factors, altitude and orientation, have influences on the scale and the development of settlements. In an other words, the settlements in high altitude were in a smaller scale, and south-oriented settlements had more chances to develop bigger ones. The factors, such as terrain, gradient, a nearby river or safety, may be satisfied in substance or spirit, but they would not affect the development of settlements.