Investigating rural public spaces with cultural significance using morphological, cognitive and behavioural data

Abstract

During the rural [re]vitalization process in China, national strategies required rural public spaces with cultural significance to be identified before planning decision-making. However, places identified as culturally significant by planners and visitors can differ from the ones mostly used and valued by locals. Even if there is a growing interest in integrating local perspectives and experiences in planning, studies seldom discuss and compare openly the adequacy of spatial configuration, cognition and behaviour to support it. This study took Anyi Historic Village Cluster as a case study to empirically investigate rural public spaces with three distinct, yet related approaches: (1) Morphological: spatial network centralities based on space syntax; (2) Cognitive: Lynchian village images with semi-structured interviews; (3) Behavioural: spatiotemporal occupation patterns using Wi-Fi positioning tracking. Significant places valued and used by locals and non-locals were detected with the multi-source data. Furthermore, multivariant regression models managed to characterize the relationship among different aspects of investigated rural public spaces, which also helped diagnose places of interest to prioritize in planning, demonstrating the advantage of integrating the sources of information in practice instead of studying them apart. Results can also assist rural planning on how to identify what to preserve, what to enhance, and how to develop such spaces, without overlooking the local needs or losing the rural identity.

Research on the Public Environment Renewal of Traditional Villages Based on the Social Network Analysis Method

“…The public spaces of traditional villages, as an indispensable part of the material carrier, connect and link the households in the villages and play an important role in the overall stability of the villages [15]. However, the steep decline in the total number of natural villages [16] indicates a rapid and irreversible decline of village extinction in China. Under the premise of the lack of village vitality, the remodeling of the public spaces of traditional villages may slow down or delay the process of village extinction and improve the living environment of traditional villages.…”

The Landscape and Evolution of Rural Planning in China

“…Global research on rural planning Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy has not stopped. For example, rural land use planning [9][10][11][12], rural public service facilities planning [13][14][15], rural cultural facilities planning [16][17][18], rural spatial planning [19][20][21][22], rural spatial evolution [23,24], rural tourism planning [25][26][27], rural industrial planning [25,28,29], and so on. Although rural planning is a universal phenomenon worldwide, research results are abundant.…”

Mapping Urban Heritage Images With Social Media Data and Artificial Intelligence, a Case Study in Testaccio, Rome

“…However, ordinary people including local residents and visiting tourists usually also have their own experiences and opinions on the tangible and intangible aspects that they truly value in a heritage-rich place, providing an alternative bottom-up view (Janssen et al, 2017, Bai et al, 2021a. Such a view as the "image" of a place by the public can be informative for experts during the spatial planning and heritage management decision-making processes, as it adds a potentially more inclusive layer of information concerning the emotional attachment and sense of belonging in a "lived place" (Lynch, 1964, Lefebvre, 1991, which might not be directly and/or necessarily recognised as heritage according to the conventional procedure but does positively contribute to the collective memory (Assmann et al, 1995, Bai et al, 2023. Since the adoption of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) by UNESCO, mapping the cultural significance of urban heritage attributes (Veldpaus, 2015) from the perspectives of a broader range of stakeholders including the general public is being recommended (UNESCO, 2011), where tools for knowledge documentation and civic engagement are also actively called for.…”