鹿谷鄉清水溝溪下游了地在清代林爽文事件後設立熱番屯地，將侵墾田園納為屯租，並立碑告示屯地範圍，是清代臺灣番界與族群政策變革之重要見證。由於地理環境、策與歷史事件等因素，本地區形成四種租權—漢大租、屯租、水沙連社丁口糧租及社寮開漳聖王廟香燈租，這些開發背景對谷地內區域之形塑具有相當影響力。本地區有坪仔頂、清水溝、番仔寮三大自然村，在行政區劃、聚落、族群、宗教信仰等方面呈拓墾背景的確存在。區域特色的突顯是當代區域研究的核心，因此本例提供一個臺灣區域研究的思考，即臺灣區域複雜多元，即使是一個小地區內部亦可能仍存在差異，透過對人與地、人與人之冒在長期定居過程中的交互作用進行脈析理，方能界定具有人文意義的區域並彰顯其區特色。本例並提醒區地理的研究立足於區域間原本既存的差異，而非某些已建立的區範型。

After the Linshunagwen incident, the Qing government set up farmlands for the guarding aborigines. One of which is at Qingshuigou Stream lower reach in Luku. Those illegal cultivaters previously had to pay taxes to the guarding aborigines. The government set up a notice of the farmland surrounding boarders sculptured on a stone, which is an important historic evidence of the ethnic boundary and Policies transforming during Qing decade. In consequence of the environmental specialties, the policies and the historic incidents, the land at Qingshuigou Stream lower reach were divided into four patterns of taxes rights-the Han landlord’s taxes, the guarding aborigines’ taxes, the shuishalian tribal male’s provision-taxes and the expense-taxes of Kaizhangshegwang temple in Sheliao. These are three nature-villages of which characters such as political area divisions, settlements, groups and religions are relative to the reclaiming factors. Describing and interpreting the variable characters is the core of contemporary regional geography studying, and this case reminds us that the studying in Taiwan faces complex diversity of regional characters. Therefore even a small scale area may exist differentiations inside. Analyzing and separating the interactive contexts of people with land, people each other in someplace during the long resident process seems to be a approach of dividing meaningful human regions and manifesting those regional characters. This case also reminds us that regional geographic studies are founded on existed areal differentiations, but not on some kinds of regional types.