Search Results (462)

Traditional villages preserve regional cultural memory and distinctive rural landscapes while embodying the historical evolution of human–land relationships. This study examines the spatial distribution and influencing factors of 221 nationally listed traditional villages in central Shanxi using GIS-based spatial analysis, standard deviational ellipse analysis, river and road buffer analyses, and the optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD). The villages are significantly clustered in a multi-core, locally contiguous pattern oriented along a northeast–southwest axis. Most are located at elevations of 500–1000 m. Village frequencies vary nonlinearly with distance from rivers and roads, suggesting trade-offs among water access, hazard avoidance, and transport connectivity. Temperature, population density, GDP, and elevation show relatively strong explanatory power, while the interaction between urbanization rate and population density has the highest explanatory power. By linking historical formation conditions with contemporary development pressures, this study proposes a cultural landscape network organized around high-density village clusters, water-system and historical transport corridors, and major mountain–basin landscape units, supported by differentiated conservation zoning and context-specific rural spatial governance. These findings provide region-specific evidence for living heritage conservation and sustainable rural governance. Full article

High-altitude rural settlements on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau have developed through long-term adaptation to terrain, hydrology, infrastructure, and socio-cultural organization. However, quantitative evidence on how settlement morphologies are typologically structured and how contextual constraints are associated with their differentiation remains limited. Taking 20 Tibetan rural settlements in the Lhasa River valley as samples, this study develops a hierarchical morphological typology and examines its contextual associations. Spatial indicators describing boundary form, building layout, and spatial organization were constructed from remote sensing imagery, settlement mapping, and field observations. Hierarchical clustering identified a two-level typological structure, comprising two higher-order morphological branches and four detailed settlement archetypes. ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests indicated significant inter-type differences in key morphological indicators, including shape index, building density, inter-building distance, building disorder, and spatial centrality. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was then conducted at the higher-order branch level to explore how elevation, slope, river proximity, road accessibility, and religious-spatial context combine in relation to broader morphological differentiation. The results indicate that high-altitude settlement morphology is associated with multiple contextual configurations, with no single condition acting as a universal explanatory factor. Extended–loose settlements are generally linked to more open valley settings, whereas constrained organized settlements are associated with stronger terrain, accessibility, or corridor-based spatial constraints. Although the identified archetypes are specific to the Lhasa River Valley, the analytical framework provides a basis for comparative studies of rural settlements in other high-altitude and mountainous regions. The findings provide a quantitative basis for understanding the morphological diversity of Tibetan rural settlements and offer typology-based implications for rural planning, infrastructure allocation, and landscape conservation in environmentally sensitive plateau regions. Full article

Cultural ecosystem service (CES) assessment is essential for comprehensively understanding and evaluating ecosystem services. Optimizing the spatial zoning of CESs can provide more targeted information for ecosystem management. By identifying the typical landscape characteristics of different CESs, rural landscape value can be more effectively recognized. This study constructed a set of rural landscape characteristics indicators, identified the typical characteristics of different CESs based on public preferences, mapped their spatial distributions using the Maxent model, and applied K-means clustering analysis to optimize the spatial zoning in rural Huzhou. The results show that the four CESs categories are associated with different rural landscape characteristics. The spatial distributions of the CESs showed substantial overlap and were mainly concentrated in southern Anji County, around the Moganshan Scenic Area, and along the shoreline of Lake Taihu. Five types of rural landscapes were identified based on spatial distribution of the CESs. This study provides a reference for identifying the landscape value of CESs in rural areas and supports the incorporation of CES assessment into rural landscape management decision-making. Full article

Aesthetic perception of rural streetscapes reflects individuals’ cognitive responses to their surroundings and is central to understanding how landscape preferences are formed. Existing studies using Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) are constrained by incomplete indicator systems and overreliance on linear approaches. This study proposes an interpretable machine learning framework that integrates multi-source data to examine the nonlinear influences of streetscape features on SBE. Using Sanguan Village, a water-networked settlement in Jiangsu, we developed a 24-indicator system spanning color, spatial, natural, artificial, and cultural dimensions. Based on 523 panoramic images and aesthetic ratings from 1175 respondents, we compared OLS, DT, MLP, SVR, RF, and XGBoost models. The best-performing XGBoost, combined with SHAP analysis, revealed threshold effects and interaction patterns among variables. Green visibility, architectural aesthetics, building visibility, sky visibility, environmental coordination, and water are the top six feature variables most strongly associated with rural streetscape aesthetic perception, and each exhibits threshold effects. The saturation threshold for green visibility is 0.153, and architectural aesthetics can only make a positive contribution when its score exceeds 3.815. The appropriate range for building visibility is below 0.452, while the optimal value for sky visibility is approximately 0.194. We also explored the context-dependence of these threshold effects across urban and rural settings. This study proposes streetscape optimization strategies focusing on screening key factors, controlling their thresholds, and coordinating the allocation of streetscape features. The interpretable analytical framework for rural scenic beauty established in this research can facilitate evidence-based landscape optimization and provide scientific support for sustainable rural development and tourism in this case. Full article

Living terraced cultural landscapes (LTCLs) bind together agricultural heritage, ecological function, and local culture. International instruments such as the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments, Enhancing Our Heritage Toolkit 2.0, and Preparing World Heritage Nominations guide heritage protection, but none integrates all four dimensions, and no LTCL-specific framework exists to diagnose a candidate site before formal nomination. Following PRISMA 2020, this review synthesized 61 peer-reviewed studies from the Web of Science Core Collection (2012–2026; screening Cohen’s κ = 0.82). Keyword co-occurrence mapping in VOSviewer, combined with manual thematic coding, produced six clusters that we consolidated into four analytical dimensions: heritage value, landscape integrity, tourism–heritage balance, and governance and protection. Reading across these dimensions revealed three gaps—no tool integrates all four in an operable form, the balance between tourism and protection lacks an explicit evaluative mechanism, and socioeconomic stressors such as rural labor out-migration fall outside official criteria—together pointing to a fourth, procedural gap: the absence of pre-nomination diagnosis. On this basis we propose IAF-LTCL, a preliminary conceptual framework of four dimensions and 22 elements, designed so that strength in one dimension does not offset weakness in another. The framework is not yet empirically validated; we present it as a structured starting point that heritage managers can use for pre-nomination self-assessment, pending future field validation. Full article

Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) has struggled with scale mismatches and inadequate treatment of cultural expression when applied to high-density cultural landscapes in Asia. On the Chengdu Plain, Western Sichuan, China, remote sensing shows convergent settlement patterns across case sites, but fieldwork reveals substantial divergences in landscape character. We examined five cases representing different rural development models in the Chengdu metropolitan area. By integrating 10 m Sentinel-2 imagery and with systematic fieldwork (3200 photographs and 42 semi-structured interviews, July–August 2023), we constructed a framework that combines macro-scale spatial analysis with micro-scale field investigation. For macro-level quantification, six landscape pattern indices were adopted: number of patches (NP), patch density (PD), contagion index (CONTAG), aggregation index (AI), Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and Shannon’s evenness index (SHEI). The micro-level investigation followed a three-tier scheme (natural environment, settlement space, architectural details) to record vertical ecological communities, spatial expressions of cultural embeddedness, and visual landscape character. Indicator screening employed the KJ method and two rounds of Delphi consultation with ten experts; weights were then determined through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Macro-level results display a clustered, low-fragmentation pattern (woodland AI = 97.48, water body AI = 99.40), anchored by a stable mosaic of Linpan, farmland, water bodies, and homesteads. Micro-level features include multi-strata vertical communities of trees, shrubs, grasses, and water, along with cultural embeddedness expressed through irrigation systems, farming patterns, and courtyard layouts. The VLEAS (Vernacular Landscape Elements Assessment System) framework encompasses three dimensions (natural, cultural, and visual) and comprises 12 indicators. The cultural dimension receives the highest weight (0.42), followed by natural (0.32) and visual (0.26) dimensions. Comparative analysis shows that the framework differentiates cases with similar macro-scale patterns but divergent micro-features, capturing differences that a purely macro-index benchmark misses, and it also reveals trade-offs among ecological integrity, cultural heritage, and visual quality. Sensitivity analysis displays that case rankings remain stable across four extreme weighting scenarios (cultural, ecological, visual, equal), with only one swap (Xingfu Pastoral Park and Nongke Village) under ecological priority and no rank change greater than one position, confirming that the results are not driven by any specific weight assignment. This approach extends the utility of LCA in high-density rural cultural landscapes and offers a practical tool for differentiated conservation and management, especially in tourism-influenced rural settings on the Chengdu Plain. Transferability to other regions would require recalibration of locally relevant indicators. Full article

As tourism shifts from sightseeing to experience-oriented consumption, understanding how tourist perception differs across heterogeneous destination types and spatial scales remains challenging. Using 23,439 Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) reviews archived for six destinations in Shangrao, China, this study compares mountain-type and rural comprehensive destination products. These are operational dominant-function categories rather than mutually exclusive geomorphological classes. The archive supports fine-grained sentiment, topic, and semantic-network analyses; annual temporal comparisons use the full 23,439-review corpus covering 2019–2025, whereas a separate subset of reviews posted from 1 August 2022 with official IP labels, aggregated into 2022–2024 province–year observations, supports Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (Pooled OLS) estimation. A hybrid lexicon–XLM-RoBERTa workflow, BERTopic, semantic co-occurrence analysis, and Pooled OLS are integrated in a cross-scale framework. Static results reveal shared strengths and weaknesses—high scenery and overall-experience evaluations but low price evaluations—alongside type-specific structures: mountain reviews concentrate on natural scenery, climbing effort, and accessibility, whereas rural reviews span village landscapes, cultural activities, accommodation, and nighttime experiences. Temporally, mountain demand retains a stable scenic core while accessibility concerns become more salient; rural demand shifts from traditional agricultural landscapes toward nighttime performances and other experience-oriented products. Cross-scale regressions identify destination- and dimension-specific correlates rather than causal drivers: urbanization is positively associated with several rural evaluations, while ecological contrast, climatic difference, and competing scenic resources are associated with more critical assessments in selected dimensions. The findings show that perception differences arise from the interaction of destination product structures and origin-region contexts, supporting differentiated accessibility management for mountain destinations and balanced product innovation, service improvement, and commercialization control for rural destinations. Full article

Planning debates increasingly recognise that climate adaptation, community wellbeing, and tourism development cannot be treated as separate domains; yet existing place-based frameworks rarely integrate Indigenous governance, multidimensional wellbeing, and visitor dynamics within a single cohesive model. This article develops the Relational Resilient Place Framework as a conceptual model for understanding how culturally grounded landscapes can balance Indigenous authority, local community interests, and destination pressures. Drawing on mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge) scholarship, therapeutic landscapes research, and the destination governance literature, the framework positions place as relational infrastructure. In this model, ecological vitality (mauri), collective wellbeing, cultural integrity, and visitor engagement are treated as interdependent rather than competing objectives. The framework is structured through six lenses: partnership integrity, cultural safety, community wellbeing, climate transition capacity, visitor–resident alignment, and long-term stewardship. The article establishes a conceptual basis for evaluating the theoretical conditions under which places function as resilient systems across rural, regional, and destination contexts. It argues that Indigenous governance principles provide a structural foundation for aligning wellbeing and tourism without reproducing extractive or growth-centric logics. In doing so, the framework demonstrates how Indigenous ontologies can move beyond symbolic inclusion to underpin resilient, non-extractive approaches to place-based planning. Full article

Peri-urban rural public spaces are increasingly involved in territorial development, rural-regeneration management, and built-environment upgrading, yet existing research often treats rural regeneration as program implementation rather than as a spatial-development and public-space management problem. This study develops a built-environment governance framework from the 2025 Hsinchu City Community Rural Regeneration Facilitation Program in Taiwan. Using a reflective document-based case-study design, the analysis integrates administrative reports, training records, plan-review materials, spatial-planning documents, built-environment case evidence, agricultural net-zero policy materials, and Taiwanese rural-regeneration literature. Four descriptive readiness ratios are used to profile the governance process: SIE (urban–rural interface exposure), PPC (training participation), RAC (review conversion), and ATR (approval-track readiness). These indicators clarify administrative and governance readiness, but they are not treated as direct measurements of spatial quality, carbon reduction, or user wellbeing. The results identify a four-dimensional management framework for peri-urban rural public-space regeneration: wellbeing-oriented public spaces, low-carbon ecological infrastructure, cultural-landscape continuity, and community-based implementation capacity. The study further proposes standardized ordinal scoring rules, a policy-to-space translation model, and a future post-occupancy and spatial-quality validation scheme. The theoretical contribution lies in reframing rural regeneration as a built-environment governance interface for territorial development, while the practical contribution lies in providing a reviewable framework for managing public-space proposals, construction priorities, maintenance readiness, and future validation in peri-urban rural areas. Full article

Rural land is the spatial embodiment and physical manifestation of nostalgia. When people settle in cities, they become rural sojourners, returning to rural landscapes through travel. The rural history embedded in traditional landscapes is a treasure trove, and these landscapes provide ideal sites for nostalgic research. Tourism has proven to be a major driver for the development of traditional landscapes. This paper focuses on traditional villages with rich rural heritage and high cultural representativeness in the Huizhou region. This paper examined the nostalgic factors among 518 rural visitors to traditional villages. The results indicate that natural landscape (β = 0.30) and traditional agriculture (β = 0.20) directly influence visitors’ nostalgic experiences, while rural architecture and vernacular culture contribute to it indirectly through mediated pathways. The results also show that spiritual and historical nostalgia are the dominant aspects, while homeland nostalgia is relatively less significant in the Huizhou context. The study contributes to a better understanding of nostalgic experience in traditional villages and provides practical insights for balancing heritage protection and tourism development. Full article

Great Wall villages are living cultural landscapes within a linear heritage corridor, yet they face growing pressures from population decline, rural hollowing, uneven development, and tourism-related transformation. This study evaluates the cultural landscape resilience of 20 Great Wall villages in Chicheng County, China. A Cultural Landscape Resilience Index (CLRI) was constructed from three dimensions: resistance, recovery, and learning capacity. The AHP-CRITIC method was used to determine indicator weights, while spatial autocorrelation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) were applied to identify the spatial pattern of CLRI and the multiscale effects of its influencing factors. The results show that CLRI was generally low and spatially uneven. Villages with relatively high resilience were mainly concentrated near the county seat and major transportation corridors, whereas many villages along the Great Wall corridor showed lower resilience levels. MGWR results revealed clear spatial heterogeneity in the influencing factors. Heritage revitalization and social development features, heritage preservation and protection, tourism development and utilization, and village patterns and collaborative heritage protection were positively associated with CLRI. In contrast, the diversity of rural village landscapes and the strength of the human-land relationship showed negative associations with CLRI. Heritage revitalization and social development features and rural village landscape diversity operated at relatively broad spatial scales, whereas heritage preservation and protection and tourism development and utilization exhibited stronger local variation. The findings demonstrate that improving the resilience of Great Wall village cultural landscapes requires spatially differentiated conservation and development strategies, including strengthened heritage protection, coordinated conservation of village patterns and heritage elements, context-sensitive tourism development, and improved public services and development opportunities in less resilient villages. Full article

Wine tourism is increasingly recognized as a key driver of sustainable rural development and the integrated enhancement of cultural heritage. However, in many production areas, including Southern Italy, the sector remains fragmented, with limited integration between wine production, cultural heritage, and territorial identity, restricting its potential for experiential and sustainable tourism. This study addresses this gap by proposing a relational, heritage-based approach that connects wine landscapes with archaeological and cultural resources. The aim of the research is to examine how wine tourism can contribute to sustainable territorial development in Basilicata (Southern Italy) through an integrated interpretative framework. This study also develops a georeferenced wine tourism map and evaluates the readiness of wineries to adopt integrated wine tourism models. Methodologically, the research is structured into three phases: (i) literature review and data collection on wine-related cultural heritage; (ii) development of a georeferenced map identifying 21 points of interest within the main regional DOC areas; and (iii) stakeholder engagement through participation in sector events and a strategic questionnaire administered to 30 wineries (response rate: 50%). Data were analysed using spatial interpretation and descriptive and thematic analysis. Results show that wine tourism in Basilicata is consolidating but remains characterized by territorial imbalance and weak integration between wine production and cultural heritage. Wineries demonstrate strong territorial identity and growing interest in experiential tourism, while communication and interpretation tools remain underdeveloped. The wine tourism map effectively integrates spatial and cultural data and supports cooperation among stakeholders. In conclusion, integrated mapping-based wine tourism can foster sustainable rural development in inner areas and provide a replicable framework linking heritage, identity, and tourism. Full article

Traditional villages in river basins preserve rural landscapes through both environmental adaptation and accumulated heritage governance. Taking 173 national-level traditional villages in the Fenhe River Basin as the study objects, this study examines their spatial patterns and the heterogeneity of influencing factors using kernel density estimation, nearest-neighbor analysis, spatial autocorrelation, optimal-parameters-based geographical detector, and multiscale geographically weighted regression. The villages display a significant clustered distribution rather than a random or administratively bounded pattern, forming a belt-like structure along the Fenhe River, its major tributaries, and mountain-basin transition zones, with high-density cores in the Taiyuan and Linfen basins. Among all examined factors, the enrichment of cultural relic protection units shows the strongest explanatory power in the OPGD results, with a q-value of 0.4349. Its MGWR coefficients are also predominantly positive and significant, suggesting that officially recognized heritage resources act as spatial anchors for the persistence and organization of traditional villages. Precipitation, elevation, intangible cultural heritage, per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and historical post-road accessibility further shape village density, but their effects are spatially uneven. These findings suggest that conservation in the Fenhe River Basin should move beyond isolated village repair toward a watershed-scale linear heritage network linking river corridors, historical routes, cultural relic protection units, and cross-county governance. Full article

Forest-based cultural heritage landscapes associated with traditional potash, tar, resin, and charcoal (PoTaRCh) production constitute valuable socio-ecological systems with considerable potential for sustainable tourism and rural development. However, little is known about how these destinations may evolve under future environmental, social, and governance uncertainties. The objective of this study was to identify the key drivers and critical uncertainties shaping the future development of PoTaRCh-based tourism systems in Europe by 2040 and to develop alternative scenarios to support strategic planning and adaptive governance. The research adopted the Intuitive Logics approach to scenario planning and the Scenario-Based Strategic Planning framework, combining a two-round Delphi study with 42 experts from 15 European countries and qualitative scenario development. Four key drivers were identified: forest ecosystem integrity, destination governance, community participation, and visitor experience and tourism demand. Their interaction resulted in five internally consistent scenarios: Forest Harmony, Guardians’ Forest, Tourist Forest, Forgotten Forest, and Regenerating Forest. The findings demonstrate that the resilience of PoTaRCh-based tourism systems depends on the dynamic interaction between ecological conditions, governance capacity, local stewardship, and tourism demand rather than on any single driver. To facilitate the practical application of the scenarios, the study also proposes a Scenario Monitoring Framework and Scenario Cockpit that translate qualitative scenario narratives into monitoring indicators for early detection of emerging development pathways. The study advances tourism futures research by providing one of the first comprehensive foresight analyses of forest-based cultural heritage tourism systems and offers practical guidance for destination managers and policy-makers seeking to strengthen the long-term sustainability and resilience of heritage landscapes. Full article

This study examines the post-earthquake reconstruction framework adopted in the Mt. Etna region, where the ordinances issued by the Extraordinary Commissioner provided the operational structure enabling the integration of technical, geological, and landscape-protection requirements. Geological, geophysical, and geognostic investigations were mandated to characterize local subsurface conditions and ensure that repair or reconstruction works complied with safety standards and regulatory requirements, particularly where retaining walls support buildings, roads, and infrastructure. A distinction was made between traditional dry-stone retaining walls—an essential component of the rural Etnean landscape—and reinforced concrete walls, which are adopted in contexts requiring higher structural performance. Their reconstruction involved differentiated technical approaches aimed at ensuring deformation-compatible behavior and mitigating the effects of permanent ground deformation while preserving the historical and cultural value of dry-stone constructions, recognized as UNESCO intangible heritage. The resulting reconstruction model integrates high-resolution geostructural and geophysical surveys, Active and Capable Fault (ACF) zoning criteria, and performance-based geotechnical design within a unified governance and technical protocol. This approach provides a replicable methodology for the post-seismic reconstruction of retaining walls in areas affected by permanent ground deformation and complex volcano-tectonic settings. Full article