Identifying Rural Landscape Heritage Character Types and Areas: A Case Study of the Li River Basin in Guilin, China

Abstract

Rural landscape heritage faces issues of landscape character homogenization and unclear protection boundaries. We propose combining landscape character assessment (LCA) methods to identify the characteristics and areas of heritage, aiming to preserve the diversity and integrity of the landscape. This paper focuses on the Li River Basin as the study area, presenting a method for identifying characteristics and areas of rural landscape heritage. It is divided into four steps: selection and spatial scope identification of rural landscape heritage, identification of natural character areas, identification of cultural character areas, and identification and analysis of character areas of rural landscape heritage. Firstly, cultural relic units, traditional villages, and intangible cultural heritage as sources of rural landscape heritage were selected by utilizing the Minimum Cumulative Resistance model (MCR) to calculate the spatial scope of rural landscape heritage. Secondly, clustering and automatic partition methods were employed to classify the Li River Basin into four types of natural character areas. Thirdly, cultural core areas and buffer areas were determined based on the heritage source hierarchy and cultural features. Fourthly, by overlaying heritage spatial ranges, natural character areas, and cultural character areas, 2 levels of heritage areas, 7 types of heritage cultural areas, and 43 heritage character units were obtained. This method not only provides a comprehensive framework for the identification of characteristics and areas for rural landscape heritage but also enhances the integrity of data selection in landscape character assessment methods at the cultural level.

Research on Evaluating the Characteristics of the Rural Landscape of Zhanqi Village, Chengdu, China, Based on Oblique Aerial Photography by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

“…However, this lack of data validity and lack of public participation is also found in many other studies [34,35,[64][65][66]. Although the impact of these shortcomings on the results was not significant, we believe that it would have been a better option to combine LCA with oblique UAV photography for a comprehensive analysis of landscape characteristics.…”

“…Landscape character assessment (LCA) can separate the unique physical, visual, spatial and perceptual attributes of a landscape [34] by identifying and evaluating the factors that make a landscape distinctive in a particular area, thus creating a unique sense of place [35,36].…”

Delineating Landscape Features Perception in Tourism-Based Traditional Villages: A Case Study of Xijiang Thousand Households Miao Village, Guizhou

“…Landscape characters have multiple values, and landscape information can only be observed, received, and then perceived in the brain by a human being in order to make a description that is consistent with landscape characters [30]. However, a commonality can be summarised from the known landscape character studies; even though professional landscape research organisations are using the LCA [31][32][33] methodology, they often tend to choose to start with aspects of regional culture and natural environment for the study of landscape features in different regions. They seldom involve the participation of experiential users in the process of landscape character collection.…”