In recent years, China has systematically strengthened its top-level strategic planning for the conservation of both cultural and natural heritage. In the domain of cultural heritage, a comprehensive preservation framework has been established to safeguard historical and cultural assets across urban and rural contexts, while actively identifying and documenting emerging heritage categories—including modern heritage and agricultural heritage. In parallel, China has instituted a national park−centered protected areas system to enhance the conservation and sustainable management of natural heritage. Against the backdrop of ongoing institutional strengthening for both cultural and natural heritage protection, the holistic protection of cultural and natural heritage has attracted growing attention. However, three interrelated challenges currently impede its effective implementation across China: first, limited recognition of the holistic value and intrinsic significance of heritage assets; second, imprecise delineation of spatial conservation boundaries; and third, fragmented regulatory mechanisms that hinder coordinated protection and sustainable development. To address these gaps, this study draws on planning practice and empirical experience from Hunan Province to propose a provincial-level technical framework for holistic protection planning. The framework aims to advance methodological rigor in regional-scale spatial governance, strengthen the operational linkage between planning formulation and on-the-ground implementation, and support the practical realization of holistic protection objectives.

Holistic protection planning for cultural and natural heritage constitutes a specialized sectoral plan of the territorial spatial planning system, designed specifically to overcome the limitations arising from fragmented, sector-specific protection approaches. At the provincial level, such holistic protection planning is grounded in two defining characteristics of heritage resources—regional and interdependence features. It advances a coherent technical pathway comprising four sequential yet iterative phases: 1) overall value recognition, 2) spatial recognition of conservation areas, 3) tiered spatial regulatory guidance, and 4) implementation-oriented planning transmission. First, it is essential to advance the overall value recognition of heritage. This requires a systematic identification and documentation of resources that embody landscape evolution, human−environment interactions, and regional interconnections—while also demonstrating distinctive regional and landscape significance. Priority should be given to four resource categories: natural landscapes, evolutionary cultural landscapes, associative cultural landscapes, and heritage corridors. These categories are intended to address critical gaps in the current heritage protection framework. Second, protection spaces must be delineated through a relational, integrative approach—structured across two complementary tiers: regional characteristic zones and key units. At the provincial scale, regional characteristic zones should be defined holistically, integrating natural geography, built environment attributes (e.g., architectural typologies and material traditions), and socio-cultural continuities. The objective is to safeguard and reinforce local spatial identity over time. Subsequently, key units are to be identified based on heritage value significance, spatial connectivity, and resource concentration—explicitly transcending administrative boundaries. Such units must constitute coherent landscape entities with functional and perceptual integrity, and simultaneously serve as operational management units for implementing targeted conservation controls. Third, spatial governance and guidance must be calibrated to the functional logic of characteristic zoning. Within regional characteristic zones, management requirements are primarily strategic and facilitative—designed to preserve historical continuity and amplify regional distinctiveness. Control measures for key units are articulated across two complementary dimensions: 1) adhere to the bottom line of protection—ensuring the authenticity and integrity of heritage resources through baseline restrictions on land use, development intensity, and visual intrusion in sensitive areas; 2) landscape enhancement—establishing principled guidelines for compatible land use, spatial transitions, and contextual integration of heritage assets with their surrounding environments. Furthermore, a major project risk assessment mechanism is instituted to support preliminary review of proposed developments with potential heritage impacts. Fourth, planning transmission and implementation must be effective to support characteristic enhancement. A hierarchical implementation framework is to be established—linking provincial-level sectoral plans with municipal/county-level sectoral plans through clearly defined technical alignment. Transmission encompasses three dimensions: 1) heritage resource elements, 2) designated protection spaces, and 3) project-related risk considerations, involving spatial positioning, boundary delineation, refinement of control criteria, inter-municipal coordination mechanisms, and integration of major project risk assessments into early-stage planning review processes.

Drawing on experience from Hunan Province, this study validates the operational feasibility of a technical framework for provincial-level holistic protection planning of cultural and natural heritage. Through systematic analysis of natural geography, built-environment characteristics, and socio-cultural continuities, the research identified heritage resources aligned with a holistic protection rationale. This enabled the delineation of Hunan Province into six regional characteristic zones and the subsequent identification of seven categories of key units. Using the Dongting Lake polder embankment unit as a representative case, the paper articulates a four-pillar control strategy—comprising baseline safeguards, construction regulation, landscape design guidance, activation and utilization—within provincial sectoral planning. Moreover, it demonstrates how provincial-level planning mandates are operationally refined and implemented at the municipal/county levels, thereby confirming the functional efficacy and institutional enforceability of the planning transmission mechanism.

The essence of holistic protection for cultural and natural heritage lies in safeguarding the dynamic, co-evolutionary relationships between human societies and natural systems. A holistic protection plan serves as an integrative governance instrument that addresses the fragmentation inherent in current sectoral management regimes. Specifically, it advances a unified understanding of heritage significance, enables the strategic integration of high-value resources into designated protection and management spaces, and strengthens the implementation of planning objectives through regulatory tools, including land-use controls, planning conditions, permitting procedures, and vertically coordinated transmission of planning mandates. Currently, holistic protection remains in an experimental phase; its methodological foundations require further refinement through cross-regional comparative research, while its conceptual and operational frameworks must be iteratively enhanced through evidence-based learning from pilot implementations.

Aiming at the problems of separation and inadequate integration between natural and cultural heritage protection in current territorial spatial planning, this study aims to construct a regional heritage holistic protection spatial network that integrates natural and cultural values. Taking the six central districts of Tianjin as an example, this research explores a systematic approach that integrates local theories, historical documents, and multi-source spatial data to identify heritage elements, quantify their natural and cultural associations, and ultimately form a spatial structure that supports collaborative governance and planning optimization, providing a solution to break the protection dilemma of the natural-cultural dualistic division.

Based on the “nature-culture” linkage mechanism reflected in traditional GUJI concepts and cultural landscape theory, this study integrates textual, visual, and geospatial multi-source data to construct a technical framework of “text mining−feature quantification−network building.” The research data includes text data, map data, and spatial data.The research methods include: 1) Natural base classification: Based on four types of indicators—terrain, hydrological conditions, climate features, and vegetation/soil—100  m  ×  100  m grid analysis was applied. GIS spatial analysis was employed to delineated five types of natural substrates. 2) Natural and cultural feature identification: Natural elements (rivers, lakes, wetlands, terraces) and cultural themes (transportation and shipping, commercial markets, agricultural production, religion and folklore, military defense) surrounding heritage sites were extracted. Keyword matching and inverse term frequency co-occurrence were used to compute element intensity. 3) Feature clustering: Principal component analysis (PCA) and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) clustering were applied to identify four types of natural features and seven types of cultural features. 4) Cultural influence calculation: Kernel density estimation (KDE) was used to transform discrete heritage points into continuous density surfaces, quantifying the spatial influence ranges of the five cultural themes. 5) Network construction: Based on feature clustering results, cultural landscape units were delineated, and the minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm was employed to construct heritage linkage corridors, forming an integrated “point-line-area” holistic conservation network.

The study identifies five types of natural bases, with significant micro-scale differentiation between the units of each base. Additionally, there are distinct functional differences in the heritage types supported by different natural bases. A macro understanding of the geographical features and hydrological conditions in the six districts of Tianjin, along with the spatial distribution of heritage sites, helps in developing preventive strategies based on the natural geographical features of each region in the protection planning. Through text mining, four natural elements and five cultural themes are identified. Clustering results in seven cultural features and four natural features. The cultural features show significant spatial differentiation: The transportation and shipping culture is distributed in a belt along the Haihe River, with the core concentrated around the Sancha River confluence; the commercial market culture exhibits a dual-core pattern (traditional center of the old city and the modern commercial belt of the foreign concessions); agricultural production culture is distributed as points on the periphery; religious and folklore culture is scattered along the old city streets; military defense culture is concentrated in city walls, garrisons, and river defense points. Among the natural elements, rivers are distributed in bands, wetlands are concentrated in waterfront areas, and terraces are distributed in the concentric areas and historical construction nodes such as ferry terminals. Ultimately, an integrated protection network was constructed, including nine typical cultural landscape units and 311 spatial association paths. The network is centered around the Haihe River confluence, radiating outward along the water system, presenting a “core concentration, peripheral diffusion” pattern. The association corridors are densely distributed from the Haihe River confluence to the core area of Heping District, extending radially along historical streets and water systems. This distribution reflects the spatial logic of religious folklore and commercial market cultures following the street axis, and the interaction between military defense and transportation cultures relying on waterways.

This study constructs an integrated conservation spatial network for natural and cultural heritage from a holistic perspective of nature-culture interactive symbiosis. Theoretically, it integrates the traditional Chinese concept of “Guji” with cultural landscape theory, proposing an analytical framework of “spatial substrate–textual narrative–social identity” to provide indigenous theoretical support for the cognition of “correlation” and “integrity” in natural and cultural heritage conservation. Methodologically, it establishes a technical route of “text mining–cluster analysis–geographic modeling–network analysis”, whose core lies in integrating multi-source heterogeneous historical materials (local gazetteers, historical maps) with contemporary geospatial data, revealing the spatial correlation and structural characteristics of “nature-culture” elements through quantitative models. The research findings supplement potential natural and cultural heritage and their interrelations, delineating the boundaries of cultural landscape units. The network clarifies the element composition and spatial scope of holistic conservation, providing a basis for constructing integrated conservation systems in current planning; the relational diagram among heritage points can serve as a “relational base map” for cross-departmental collaboration, promoting coordinated governance of heritage.

Rural heritage—encompassing vast interwoven natural and built environments—serves as a vital repository of regional culture and agricultural civilization. Since the 1960s, international perspectives on rural heritage have progressively shifted toward greater holism and diversification. Concepts such as historic villages, vernacular architecture, rural landscapes, and agricultural heritage systems have been successively introduced, significantly expanding both the scope of protected entities and the conceptual depth of rural heritage. Concurrently, China’s heritage conservation paradigm has evolved from an object-centered (“individual”) model to a spatially integrated (“regional”) approach. In 2021, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Protection and Inheritance of Historical and Cultural Heritage in Urban and Rural Construction, advocating for “full spatial coverage and comprehensive element inclusion” in heritage protection. This marks a departure from the traditional system focused on isolated monuments and designated historic cities, towns, and villages, and instead promotes a regional-scale framework for integrated conservation. This conceptual shift has directly informed practical initiatives in rural heritage management. Since 2020, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development have released a series of policy documents promoting the “concentrated and contiguous protection of traditional villages,” encouraging pilot efforts in cluster-based conservation and synergistic utilization. Through cross-village resource integration, innovative models for regional collaboration in heritage stewardship have begun to emerge. Within this context, a comprehensive, multi-scalar, and continuous understanding of rural heritage becomes essential. This paper seeks to propose a methodological pathway for constructing a networked system of rural heritage resources, offering strategic insights for holistic, regionally grounded conservation.

This study adopts the analytical framework of accumulation−nesting−connection. First, it traces the historical evolution of the study area to identify heritage values accumulated across distinct chronological phases. Second, by recognizing the nested scalar structure inherent in rural heritage, it systematically identifies value-bearing carriers at multiple spatial levels. Third, from a relational geographical perspective, it examines synergistic interactions among elements, revealing underlying patterns of cultural affinity, morphological continuity, and spatial connectivity. Using Xinghua City in Jiangsu Province as a case study, the research conducts empirical analysis through three steps: reconstructing historical context to extract core values; identifying heritage carriers at the nested scales of region−cluster−village; and constructing an integrated regional heritage network based on criteria of geographical proximity, morphological similarity, and cultural relevance. Building upon this network, the study formulates strategies for heritage protection and transmission.

The study synthesizes 370 heritage elements into a cohesive regional heritage network for Xinghua City. This network comprises: 1) a hydrological backbone structured as a “six-horizontal and four-vertical” water system; 2) five characteristic clusters defined by shared natural and cultural attributes; 3) eleven village groups; 4) fourteen core villages. Based on this structural framework, a holistic conservation pattern—the “eight corridors (two axes, four belts, and two lines), five zones, and multiple clusters”—is proposed to guide coordinated protection and development across the region.

First, at the ontological level, heritage conservation must extend beyond formally designated types listed in statutory inventories to include potential heritage carriers operating at the regional scale—ensuring full spatial coverage and comprehensive inclusion of elements. Specifically, identification of heritage carriers should incorporate both built assets recognized within the system of historic cities, towns, and villages—such as protected cultural relics and historic districts—and under-documented features such as ecological corridors, agrarian landscapes, and traditional rural settlements, whose cultural significance requires systematic documentation and interpretation. Second, robust methods for associative measurement of diverse heritage elements need to be developed. Given the complex, layered cultural meanings embedded in rural landscapes, clarifying internal linkages among components and making intangible cultural connections visible and legible is crucial for advancing regional-scale conservation. While this study integrates traditional historiographical research with advanced techniques, including deep learning, morphological clustering, and GIS-based spatial analysis—further refinement and validation of these methodological approaches remain necessary in practical applications. Finally, implementation requires actionable governance mechanisms. In response to the clustering outcomes derived from network analysis, a systematic process of classification and grading must be established to support differentiated strategies for protection, adaptive reuse, and community engagement. Translating theoretical understandings of regional rural heritage into operational frameworks ensures that conservation efforts are not only conceptually robust but also practically implementable, providing clear entry points and feasible pathways for planners, policymakers, and local stakeholders alike.

The on-site conservation of World Natural Heritage (WNH) properties depends on the legal and institutional frameworks of their host countries. In China, Scenic and Historic Areas (SHAs) are central to the statutory protected area system and serve as the primary institution for nominating and managing WNH and Mixed Heritage. However, a significant gap persists: while WNH conservation prioritizes natural outstanding universal value (OUV), SHAs are traditionally rooted in a dual natural-cultural philosophy that emphasizes aesthetic experiences and the holistic value of cultural landscapes. Consequently, the general planning of SHAs often fails to align with WNH conservation and management requirements. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the methodological gap between SHA general planning and WNH management to provide a robust technical pathway for the effective conservation and governance of WNH in China.

The research adopts a multi-stage analytical approach. First, it systematically interprets international standards and best practices for WNH conservation. Key requirements are examined, including the identification and protection of OUV and its integrity, the adoption of zoning for differentiated conservation, and the involvement of local communities in participatory governance. Second, these requirements are then compared with current SHA general planning practices in China. The analysis identifies several disconnects: 1) a lack of systematic recognition of OUV and its attributes in resource inventory and evaluation; 2) the zoning approach that prioritizes visual aesthetics and tourism facilities over ecological and geological integrity; 3) the marginalization of local communities through restrictive management policies. Based on this diagnosis, a coordination framework is proposed centered on value systems, management objectives, spatial boundaries and management strategies. Finally, the framework is tested through an application to the Wulingyuan SHA, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992 for its unique quartz sandstone landform.

The proposed coordination framework comprises three interrelated components designed to strengthen the alignment between SHA general planning and WNH conservation. First, a multi-level resource and value system is established. The framework systematically incorporates OUV and its attributes into the broader natural and cultural landscape structure of the SHA. Through comprehensive resource inventory and evaluation, geological, ecological, and associated cultural attributes are hierarchically classified according to their relationship to OUV. This approach clarifies the spatial distribution of core OUV attributes and ensures that they receive the highest level of protection within the planning system. Second, a coordinated zoning system is developed to align general planning zones with the official boundaries and management objectives of WNHs and their buffer zones. This ensures the protection of core OUV attributes while providing space for sustainable tourism and community development. Third, special planning strategies are formulated to support heritage interpretation and community development. In Wulingyuan, the application of this framework demonstrates its practical effectiveness. In terms of resource evaluation, OUV attributes were systematically reassessed and incorporated into an expanded resource inventory. Heritage resources were identified across geological, ecological, and cultural dimensions. Core quartz sandstone peak-forest landforms and key ecological attributes directly associated with OUV were assigned the highest protection level, establishing a clearer hierarchy of conservation priorities. Regarding spatial coordination, inconsistencies between previous general planning zones and WNH boundaries were addressed through boundaries alignment and differentiated zoning regulations. Core heritage areas were placed under strict protection, while compatible areas were reorganized to support ecological buffering and controlled development. This restructuring reduced spatial conflicts and clarified the relationship between conservation and development. Furthermore, with respect to utilization and community livelihoods, thematic interpretation routes were organized around geological and ecological values, strengthening the interpretation of OUV within tourism activities. Management zones such as Traditional Ecological Agriculture Heritage Zones were introduced to integrate conservation objectives with local livelihood strategies. Community roles were redefined from passive regulatory subjects to active participants in heritage management, contributing to a more balanced relationship among conservation, tourism, and community development. Overall, the Wulingyuan case indicates that embedding WNH management principles into SHA general planning enhances the statutory planning’s capacity to protect and interpretation of OUV and its integrity.

This study identifies the structural misalignment between SHA general planning and WNH conservation, rooted in inconsistent value hierarchies, zoning logics, and management priorities. The absence of an explicit mechanism for incorporating OUV into statutory planning has limited the effectiveness of in situ heritage protection and weakened the coherence of spatial governance within WNH in China. By proposing a coordination framework centered on value hierarchy, management objectives, and spatial boundary alignment, the research demonstrates that international conservation requirements can be translated into operative domestic planning instruments. Theoretically, this study moves beyond traditional aesthetic-oriented planning by advancing a value-based coordination model that connects international conservation frameworks with Chinese landscape tradition. Practically, the findings serve as an empirical reference for improving “multi-plan coordination” (多规合一) within the context of China’s ongoing protected area reform and territorial spatial planning system. More broadly, as China continues to promote ecological civilization, the Wulingyuan case demonstrates the sustainable governance of landscapes with both national and global significance.

Amid global climate change and rapid urbanization, the heat island effect has emerged as a major challenge in urban environments. In densely built-up areas, high population concentration and reduction of green spaces contribute to the gradual merging of heat island areas, forming a networked structure that intensifies thermal environmental risks. Small-scale green spaces are vital resources for disrupting the connectivity of heat island sources and regulating the local climate, offering additional opportunities for optimizing the urban thermal environment pattern. However, in central urban areas where land resources are scarce and competition for land use is intense, creating large-scale new green spaces remains challenging. In this context, several key scientific questions remain unresolved: How does the spatial connectivity of heat island sources form and influence the urban thermal environment? Is there a structural correlation between the distribution of vacant land and the heat island network? How can we scientifically determine the greening priority of vacant land to effectively mitigate the heat island effect? To address these issues, this study analyzed the spatial distribution of vacant land within the urban thermal environment, assessed its greening potential, reasonably established the priority of conversion to green spaces, and proposed a phased implementation strategy, thereby providing a scientific basis for mitigating the urban heat island effect and optimizing the spatial pattern of green spaces.

Focusing on the core urban area of Hangzhou (China) and comprehensively considering both two-dimensional and three-dimensional urban environmental characteristics, research was conducted to systematically construct an evaluation framework for assessing urban vacant land greening potential based on the heat island network using the circuit theory method. Key procedures included the following: 1) Obtaining spatial location information for vacant land within the study area and classifying it based on land cover characteristics. 2) Identifying the distribution of heat island sources through land surface temperature retrieval, combined with morphological spatial pattern analysis and thermal environment connectivity analysis. 3) Comprehensively selecting 15 urban environmental indicators (8 natural environment and 7 built environment indicators) incorporating two-dimensional and three-dimensional factors to construct a heat island resistance surface. 4) Building a heat island network based on circuit theory to precisely identify key nodes within the urban thermal environment network, revealing the spatial relationship between vacant land distribution and the heat island network. 5) Determining the priority hierarchy for converting vacant land into green spaces based on the structural characteristics of the heat island network and heat island corridor width. 6) Evaluating the potential value and opportunities of vacant land in optimizing the urban thermal environment pattern and mitigating the heat island effect.

The following results were derived: 1) A total of 16 primary heat island corridors with width of 540 m and length of 7.34 km, 42 secondary heat island corridors with width of 150 m and total length of 169.68 km, and 18 heat island pinch points with a total area of 0.65 km² were identified within the study area. 2) Among the 228 vacant land parcels, 21 are located within the primary heat island corridors, with 2 directly intersecting heat island pinch points. Additionally, 37 are located within the secondary corridors. This distribution indicates an important spatial association between the vacant land and key structures within the heat island network. 3) The greening reconstruction of vacant land should be prioritized in three stages: first, “high-efficiency conversion parcels intersecting with primary heat island corridors and heat island pinch points,” followed by “high-efficiency conversion parcels intersecting with primary heat island corridors,” and finally, “high-efficiency conversion parcels intersecting with secondary heat island corridors.” This phased approach effectively blocks heat transfer and enhances the resilience of the urban thermal environment. 4) Based on the above results, this study further proposed the following gradient renewal pathway for vacant land. Transform the spatial association between vacant land and the heat island network into opportunities for ecological restoration, implement “targeted rescue” for 9 vacant land parcels within the core area that intersect with primary corridors, and carry out “batch restoration” for 33 vacant land parcels in peripheral areas intersecting with secondary corridors. This approach achieves precise allocation and efficient utilization of ecological resources and allows the remaining 186 vacant land parcels to be used for urban redevelopment purposes to balance land use costs.

The evaluation framework developed in this study provides methodological support and decision-making reference for improving the thermal environment and implementing precise greening interventions in high-density built-up areas facing land use constraints. By innovatively integrate both two-dimensional and three-dimensional environmental factors in the construction of the heat island resistance surface, and applying smooth curve fitting alongside threshold effect analysis to measure the width of heat island corridors, the spatial simulation accuracy of the urban heat diffusion process is substantially improved. Furthermore, incorporating the cost of vacant land reconstruction into the evaluation helps comprehensively balance the social, economic, and environmental benefits associated with vacant land reuse.

This study comprehensively explores the nonlinear influence mechanism of built environmental and demographic factors on metro and non-motorized transport willingness to interchange from a human-centric perspective, aiming to provide detailed design recommendations for optimizing the non-motorized transport environment and fostering the sustainable development of rail transit within transit-oriented development (TOD) projects. As urbanization accelerates at an unprecedented rate, the surge in vehicle ownership has exacerbated traffic congestion and air pollution, making the integration of "rail-bus-slow travel" networks a strategic imperative for sustainable urban mobility. However, rail transit systems often struggle to deliver seamless travel experiences due to their station layout characteristics, particularly in addressing the "last mile" connectivity challenge, which hinders the overall efficiency and attractiveness of public transport. By constructing a micro-circulation connection system that combines rail transit with non-motorized transport, this research seeks to enhance the service coverage of rail stations, promote multimodal transport integration, and optimize the overall efficiency of urban transportation systems. Notably, existing studies predominantly focus on the interplay between socio-economic attributes and built environment factors on individual route and destination choices, yet there remains a significant gap in understanding the spatial interventions of non-motorized transport behaviors from an environmental perception, particularly in the context of rail transit connections. This study addresses this gap by adopting a human-oriented approach to unravel the complex interactions between demographic factors, built environment features, and travel behavior.

Conducted in Chengdu, a pioneering city in TOD development with 423 metro stations across 16 lines, this study employs a multi-methodological approach to ensure the robustness and reliability of findings. A questionnaire, grounded in the Stated Preference method, was meticulously designed to capture both demographic factors and built environment features, encompassing variables such as gender, age, income, education level, environmental awareness, destination distance, bicycle accessibility, road speed limit, road continuity, and land use composition. To ensure data quality and representativeness, the D-optimal design methodology was utilized to generate 20 factorial combinations for scenario-based questioning, effectively capturing the complexity of real-world travel decisions. Data collection was facilitated through the Credamo online survey platform, with stringent filters applied to respondents’ geographic location, daily travel patterns, and historical questionnaire response rates, yielding 863 valid responses that reflect the diversity of Chengdu’s urban population. Data analysis was rigorous and multifaceted, employing Excel 2022 and SPSS 25.0 for descriptive statistical analysis to provide an overview of the dataset. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, a powerful machine learning technique, was leveraged to extract the weights of perception factors, enabling the construction of weighted perception indices that account for the relative importance of different environmental attributes. The study further explored the nonlinear characteristics of built environment variables by creating interaction terms between socio-economic and built environment variables, thereby capturing the complex interplay between individual characteristics and the built environment. Based on the parametric scale transformation principle, a linear equivalence method was employed to convert the 7-point scale to a 5-point scale for neural network model training, thereby enhancing overall model training accuracy.

The findings reveal a pronounced preference for walking as the primary mode of continuous transport, followed by bicycling, with motorized transport exhibiting the lowest willingness to choose, highlighting the potential for promoting active transportation modes in urban areas. Notably, female respondents demonstrated a stronger inclination towards non-motorized transportation modes, suggesting the importance of gender-sensitive design in urban planning. Income and walking distance have emerged as the primary determinants influencing the willingness to choose non-motorized modes of transportation. Analysis of interaction dependence plots in the SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis reveals that individuals with higher incomes are more inclined to opt for non-motorized travel under scenarios involving longer distances or higher speed limits. Furthermore, varying land use mixes can either enhance the propensity to choose walking or reduce the likelihood of selecting motorized transportation. Complex nonlinear relationships were observed between walking distances and different demographic groups, with varying sensitivities to built environment factors across socio-demographic factors, underscoring the need for context-specific interventions. Furthermore, a notable exclusivity was identified between non-motorized and motorized transportation modes, as well as between walking and bicycling, particularly pronounced among female respondents, highlighting the importance of integrated transport planning that considers mode competition and complementarity.

This research contributes to the literature by elucidating the nonlinear influence mechanism of built environment and socio-demographic factors on non-motorized transportation mode preferences from a human-oriented lens, thereby advancing theoretical frameworks for understanding travel behavior. Practically, the study proposes human-centric hierarchical optimization strategies, offering a scientific foundation for the refined design of non-motorized transportation systems in TOD projects, which can enhance the overall efficiency and attractiveness of public transport. These insights are instrumental in promoting the seamless integration of "rail-slow" networks, a critical step towards achieving urban transportation carbon neutrality and building sustainable, livable cities. However, the study acknowledges limitations, particularly regarding model explanatory power constrained by variable selection, suggesting future research could incorporate additional variables, such as individual attitudes towards sustainability and technological acceptance, to enhance predictive accuracy. Furthermore, the underrepresentation of low-income and low-education groups in the sample highlights the need for future studies to adopt a more dynamic approach, encompassing diverse social demographics across varying temporal and spatial contexts, to ensure the equity and inclusivity of transport planning.

In the face of the dual challenges posed by the global ecological crisis and the socio-spatial restructuring generated by the post-Fordist economic transition, contemporary campus design is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. This paper argues that the conventional approach, which treats landscape as a decorative afterthought to architecture-centric master planning, is no longer tenable. The primary objective of this research is to systematically reframe the contemporary campus as an “infrastructural landscape”, utilizing the theoretical lens of landscape urbanism. This study contends that such a reconceptualization is not merely a stylistic alternative but a necessary structural response to the complex demands of modern educational pedagogy and the imperative for greater urban resilience. The aim is to establish a robust theoretical framework that repositions the campus as a dynamic, high-performance system capable of actively mediating ecological processes, catalyzing social interaction, and integrating deeply with the larger urban fabric, thereby providing a systematic design philosophy to address the key challenges facing not only campus design but urbanism at large.

This paper employs a qualitative research methodology that combines theoretical synthesis with critical case study analysis. The core analytical framework is derived from the foundational theories of landscape urbanism, particularly the work of Charles Waldheim and James Corner. Key theoretical tenets—such as “landscape as infrastructure”, “process over form”, and “openness and indeterminacy”—are critically examined and adapted to the specific context of the campus. The research unfolds through a dual-perspective analysis. First, an inward-looking perspective, termed “the landscape in the campus”, investigates how landscape functions as a social and ecological infrastructure to support internal campus activities. This part reconstructs the campus landscape’s performance across four key domains: Facilitating learning, fostering social interaction, promoting health and wellbeing, and enhancing cultural and aesthetic values. It draws upon contemporary design precedents and pedagogical theories to illustrate these mechanisms. Second, an outward-looking perspective, “the campus as landscape”, elevates the analysis to the urban scale. This part examines the campus as an integrated entity and its role within the broader urban context, focusing on its function as a social infrastructure for community engagement and as a key component of urban green infrastructure (e.g., as a “sponge campus” unit and a biodiversity corridor). Finally, the study culminates in an in-depth analysis of an emergent design typology: The “campus megaform as urban landscape”, primarily drawing from recent, innovative school projects in high-density Chinese cities like Shenzhen. This analysis synthesizes the theoretical discussions of both landscape urbanism and Kenneth Frampton’s theory of the megaform.

The research reveals that when viewed through the lens of landscape urbanism, the campus is transformed from a static collection of objects into a dynamic, process-oriented field. The inward-looking analysis demonstrates that by prioritizing process, the performance of the campus landscape is significantly activated. It becomes a versatile infrastructure that systematically supports the pedagogical mission of “spatial education” by creating flexible, indeterminate spaces that catalyze informal learning and social encounters, moving beyond monofunctional typologies. The outward-looking analysis confirms that the campus, as an infrastructural landscape, can play a critical role in shaping a more resilient and vibrant urban environment. By dissolving rigid boundaries, it functions as a social and cultural nucleus for the surrounding community. As an ecological infrastructure, it contributes quantifiable benefits to the city’s metabolic systems, such as stormwater management and mitigation of the urban heat island effect. The investigation into the campus megaform yields the most significant result: This typology represents the ultimate synthesis of the paper’s two analytical perspectives. Practices in Shenzhen demonstrate a radical, vertical interpretation of landscape urbanism, where programs, circulation, and green spaces are woven into a three-dimensional, high-density architectural-landscape hybrid. This “vertical landscape” acts as both a highly efficient internal social and ecological infrastructure and a powerful new form of urban landmark. It thus materialized the theoretical convergence of Waldheim’s process-based infrastructuralism and Frampton’s form-based critique of the megalopolis, offering a potent new model for campus design in land-scarce urban contexts.

This paper concludes that the “infrastructural campus” is not merely a design strategy but a comprehensive new paradigm for understanding and shaping educational environments in the 21st century. It requires a fundamental cognitive shift from seeing the campus as a collection of buildings to perceiving it as a living, open, and performative system deeply intertwined with urban and ecological networks. This paradigm provides a systemic methodology for campus design and, more importantly, elevates the campus—this unique “micro-city”—to the status of a prototype for future urbanism. By testing strategies of ecological resilience, social integration, and infrastructural performance at a manageable scale, the infrastructural campus offers invaluable lessons and tangible precedents for how we might construct more resilient, dynamic, and humanistic urban environments on a broader scale. The study provides a critical analytical framework for the application of landscape urbanism theory in campus design and offers fundamental insights that are crucial for the future development of both educational institutions and the cities they inhabit.

This research aims to systematically investigate the spatial heterogeneity in the driving mechanisms behind human perception of street visual vitality, with the broader goal of supporting more refined and human-centered urban street planning and management. Street visual vitality, as a perception-based indicator, reflects the degree to which people feel a street is active, engaging, and comfortable. Unlike traditional measures that rely mainly on population or traffic data, perception-driven approaches capture how people actually experience and evaluate the urban environment. By examining how different visual elements, such as the proportion of vegetation, the density of buildings, the presence of signage, micro-mobility activities, and the openness of the sky, affect vitality perception across varying spatial contexts, this research seeks to reveal both general patterns and local nuances.

This research adopts a comprehensive, multi-stage analytical framework that integrates deep learning with spatially adaptive statistical modeling, focusing on the six central districts of Tianjin, China. First, a large-scale longitudinal dataset of street view images from 2013 to 2020 was established through automated web scraping. Based on this dataset, a ResNet50 deep learning model was trained using perception-labeled samples to estimate the visual vitality score of each street view image. The model was trained to recognize subtle environmental cues, such as human presence, facade articulation, greenery coverage, and traffic context, that jointly contribute to human vitality perception, enabling consistent and reliable predictions across the eight-year period. Second, to extract structured streetscape information, the DeepLab V3+ semantic segmentation model was applied. Through this process, the originally unstructured pixel data was transformed into interpretable visual features that represent real physical components of the street environment. To reduce the dimensionality and complexity of the large feature set while preserving spatial differences, the study applied geographically weighted principal component analysis. Unlike traditional principal component analysis, which produces global components, this method identifies localized combinations of visual features that may vary across regions. This helps capture the fact that similar visual attributes can reflect different environmental meanings depending on where they appear in the city. Finally, to explore how these features influence visual vitality perception in a spatially heterogeneous way, a geographically weighted random forest model was employed. This model combines the nonlinear learning ability of random forests with a spatial weighting mechanism, allowing each location to have its own model structure and variable importance ranking. This approach makes it possible to detect how the same visual features may have stronger, weaker, or even reversed effects in different parts of the city.

The empirical analysis reveals three major findings: 1) The spatial distribution of visual vitality perception exhibits a stable pattern characterized by higher values in the central districts and lower values in the peripheral districts. Over the eight-year period, vitality in the central districts gradually increased, likely due to continuous improvements in public space quality, transport infrastructure, and service facilities. In contrast, vitality in the peripheral districts experienced small fluctuations and a slight downward trend, reflecting relatively slower development or fewer public-realm enhancements. This center-periphery contrast highlights the uneven progression of urban vitality across the city. 2) While vitality itself is highest in the center, the influence intensity of the six principal components shows the opposite pattern: the central areas display lower influence intensity, whereas the peripheral areas show higher intensity. This suggests that central districts possess more complex and diverse environmental features, causing no single factor to dominate the perception outcome. In contrast, peripheral districts often rely on a smaller set of environmental characteristics, such as boundary elements, large transport interfaces, or micro-mobility activities, which exert stronger and more concentrated effects on visual vitality perception. The analysis also identifies a directional difference across the study area, with northeastern districts generally showing higher perceived vitality and southwestern districts consistently showing lower vitality, reflecting broader socio-economic and spatial development patterns. 3) The dominant driving components vary across spatial contexts. In the central districts, PC6 consistently emerges as the most influential driver, indicating that features related to traffic signs, poles, and active mobility contribute significantly to visual vitality perception in more developed areas. In peripheral districts, however, the influence is more diverse: PC1 and PC3 interact and jointly shape the perception results. This reveals that street vitality in less developed areas is affected by a complex mix of boundary characteristics, greenery structure, building configurations, and transportation elements. Such findings underscore the need to design targeted improvement strategies that address the specific environmental conditions of each area.

The results demonstrate that street vitality is not driven by a single universal factor but by a set of features whose importance varies across space and time. These findings offer valuable insights for urban planners, designers, and policymakers. In central districts, enhancing street vitality may involve improving multimodal transportation environments, refining street signage and facade quality, and optimizing pedestrian circulation. In peripheral districts, more substantial benefits may be achieved by enhancing boundary permeability, enriching greenery and public space elements, and strengthening micro-mobility connections. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering spatial heterogeneity in urban planning and demonstrate how advanced computational techniques can support more responsive, equitable, and human-centered urban design decisions.

In Chinese archaeological site parks, restoration displays are an important means of conveying the historical value of sites to the public. However, how different types of restoration display approaches influence visitors’ perceptions of the functional and emotional value of a site, as well as the underlying psychological mechanisms through which these effects occur, remains unclear. In particular, the role of perceived authenticity—a core concept in heritage conservation—has not yet been fully clarified in the context of site display. This study therefore uses the Daming Palace National Archaeological Site Park as a representative case to construct and empirically test an integrated influence path model that systematically examines how multiple restoration display strategies affect public perceived value through perceived authenticity.

Based on the Stimulus−Organism−Response (SOR) theoretical framework, this study treats restoration displays as external stimuli, defines visitors’ perceived authenticity as the internal psychological response, and considers perceived value as the outcome variable. Drawing on literature related to heritage interpretation and authenticity theory, restoration display approaches are categorized into five types: physical, virtual, hybrid, intentional, and emerging restoration displays. Perceived authenticity is measured from two dimensions—content authenticity and experiential authenticity—while perceived value includes both functional value and emotional value. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of visitors at the Daming Palace National Archaeological Site Park. A structural equation model was used to test the theoretical model, and the bootstrap method was applied to examine the mediating effect of perceived authenticity.

The results show that all types of restoration displays significantly enhance visitors’ perceived authenticity at the site. Among them, emerging restoration displays exert the strongest effect on content authenticity, whereas intentional displays show the strongest effect on experiential authenticity, indicating that symbolic and abstract display forms are more likely to stimulate visitors’ perception of historical atmosphere. In terms of perceived value, both physical and emerging restoration displays have significant positive effects on functional and emotional value; virtual restoration displays significantly influence emotional value but have a relatively weak effect on functional value; hybrid restoration displays and intentional displays show no significant direct effects on either dimension of perceived value. Further analysis indicates that perceived authenticity has significant positive effects on both functional value and emotional value, revealing its central mediating role in visitors’ value judgments. Moreover, perceived authenticity partially mediates the relationship between different display approaches and perceived value. Specifically, the influence of virtual, hybrid, and intentional restoration displays on perceived value operates mainly through the perceived authenticity pathway (as their direct effects are not significant), whereas physical and emerging restoration displays exert both direct effects and indirect effects mediated by perceived authenticity.

This study demonstrates that different types of restoration display strategies show heterogeneous effects in enhancing visitors’ perceived value, and that perceived authenticity serves as the key psychological mechanism linking display strategies with the public’s cognitive and emotional responses. Incorporating perceived authenticity into a multi-path analytical model not only enriches the theoretical perspective of heritage interpretation but also provides empirical evidence for differentiated restoration display design. From a practical perspective, virtual displays should be optimized by enriching display content and improving operational usability; hybrid displays should enhance technical integration and narrative coherence; and intentional displays should balance abstract creativity with information readability. Overall, strengthening perceived authenticity can help improve visitors’ learning outcomes, emotional experiences, and cultural identity. The findings provide practical guidance for managers of archaeological site parks seeking to balance heritage conservation, cultural interpretation, and visitor experience in the context of digitalization.