Abstract: Longzi County in the Qinghai-Tibet alpine region was chosen as the study area. In this paper, the residential area data of Longzi County were obtained by combining fieldwork with the high-definition remote sensing images visually interpreted. The eight topographic and geomorphological factors were selected, namely, elevations, slopes, slope aspects, terrain undulations, slope aspect change rates, ground roughness, elevation variation coefficients and landform types. And then the cold/hot spots of residential area distribution in Longzi County were assessed by using the spatial hot spot detection. Furthermore, the distribution pattern of residential areas in Longzi County was explored by using distribution index and information entropy. Finally, the relationship between residential area distribution and topographic and geomorphological factors was explored by using variable dimensional fractal. The results show that: ① The distribution of residential areas of Longzi County is mainly small cluster settlements, and shows obvious different types of "hot and cold spots". And the hot spots are mainly distributed in Longzi Town, while the cold spots are mainly distributed in Xuesa Town. ② Those residential areas in the advantaged topographic locations are relatively well ordered. The strongest orderliness is found in the residential areas on the gravelly alluvial plain and in those with elevations of 3500−4000 m, slopes of less than 2°, northern aspects, terrain undulations of less than 15 m, 5°−10° slope fluctuations, 0.001−0.005 variation coefficient of elevation, less than 1.01 roughness of ground. ③ In Longzi County, the topography and geomorphology shows a descending influence on the distribution of residential areas in an order of landforms > elevations > slopes > elevation variation coefficients > slope aspect change rates > slope aspects > terrain undulations > ground roughness.