Cultural landscapes are increasingly vulnerable to the compounded effects of potential risks, ecological degradation, and imbalanced heritage value perceptions under intensifying climate change and global urbanization pressures. However, there is a lack of framework that systematically integrates geographical hazards, ecological sensitivity, and both expert and public heritage value perceptions to guide differentiated conservation and development of cultural landscapes. This study proposes a Hazard-Ecology-Perception Landscape Planning (HEPLP) framework to provide a spatially explicit decision-support tool that unifies hazard, ecology, and perception dimensions for cultural landscape planning. HEPLP is evaluated in a case study of Chengde Mountain Resort. A GIS-based methodology is employed to characterize geographical hazards and ecological sensitivity by combining concept of entropy and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Expert scoring and large language model content analysis are used to map heritage value perceptions. Risk-based analysis and three-dimensional clustering revealed nine distinct clusters in cultural landscape, providing spatially grounded evidence for targeted conservation and development strategies. This includes many scenes where previously implemented landscape planning strategies have been designated for complete conservation, as well as clusters where trade-offs between ecological sensitivity and heritage value perception are carefully balanced. Unlike previous frameworks that focused on single or dual dimensions, HEPLP offers an integrative tool for sustainable cultural landscape conservation and development under environmental and social challenges. ... Read more

As cultural landscapes increasingly evolve within urban environments, a persistent gap has emerged between their heritage spatial characteristics and public heritage value perception, undermining urban identity and sustainability. This study introduces the Perceptual–Spatial Landscape Planning Model, an integrative framework that positions route optimization as a strategic planning intervention to bridge this gap. Taking Chengde Mountain Resort as a case, we constructed a spatial network of 144 scenes and collected 43,879 user-generated social media comments to quantify public perception. We achieved perceptual–spatial coupling through: 1) a few-shot learning paradigm based on a large language model generates five distinct perception scores of each scene; 2) the resulting scores are then integrated with heritage spatial characteristics in graph neural networks using graph attention networks and deep graph infomax. Based on the coupling process, the optimized routes were generated by a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The optimized routes outperformed official and greedy baselines, achieving higher spatial diversity, perceptual coherence, lower variance, and broader coverage of marginal yet meaningful scenes. These routes avoided overconcentration in perceptual hotspots as conventional tourism planning while enhancing interpretive richness across various spaces. This model provides strong contextual transferability, offering interpretable framework for integrating public perception into cultural landscape planning, thereby advancing both the methodological rigor and spatial intelligence of cultural landscapes’ development in urban environments. ... Read more

Visual experience is a primary channel through which the values of tangible cultural heritage are perceived and governed, making visual evaluation and management central to conservation and to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.4. However, practice remains fragmented across scales, and many statutory toolkits lag behind advances in geographic information systems (GIS)-based visibility analysis, 3D visualization, remote sensing, and perception-based evidence. We compile, code, and cross-analyze a multi-level corpus spanning 26 international instruments, 293 national items from 112 countries, and 867 World Heritage properties. Using a four-dimensional framework (values, typology, visual-evaluation methods, and visual-management strategies), we apply k-medoids clustering with multidimensional scaling (MDS) at the national level, mask-aware association mapping at the property level, and cross-level diagnostics. Across levels, practice converges on a technical-spatial regime. At the property level, GIS-based viewshed and visual sensitivity analysis, verified visuals and 3D visualization techniques, and GIS-based spatial-historical analysis form a near-universal methodological core and are most frequently translated into zoning and spatial regulation and height or massing controls. Participatory and perception- or experience-based methods remain sporadic. Value framings are dominated by Historic, Social and Political, and Aesthetic emphases, while Ecological and Scientific are comparatively marginal. Cross-level coherence is strongest where governance frameworks are mature, and portfolios are coherent; it weakens where portfolios are heterogeneous or in federated or lower-capacity settings. National portfolios cluster into four method-strategy regimes that explain characteristic object-method-strategy sequences. In response, we outline operational bridges including tiered standards for visibility and 3D evidence, deployable perception protocols, participation modules linked to Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) or Visual Impact Assessment (VIA) triggers, and auditable communication packages. These are organized within a Global Peer Network aligned to portfolio archetypes and method-strategy regimes. The study contributes a reusable global dataset and map of visual-heritage practice and an integration framework that supports more transparent, comparable, and context-sensitive decisions across levels. ... Read more

How can cultural landscapes be conserved and developed through the landscape approach? This thesis argues that cultural landscapes can be conserved and developed through an integrated landscape approach that treats them as living systems. Heritage value emerges not only from monuments or scenic elements, but from the interaction of physical structures, ecological processes, historical layers, and social experience. In response to climate change and urban transformation, conservation must move beyond static object protection toward system evolution, long-term resilience and adaptive capacity. The proposed landscape approach connects three components: landscape mapping, landscape planning, and landscape design. Landscape mapping characterizes long-term evolution, persistent spatial structures, and scene-level attributes through literature synthesis, digital reconstruction, clustering, and land-use analysis, using Chengde Mountain Resort as the case. Landscape planning integrates hazards, ecological sensitivity, expert knowledge, public perception, spatial relationships, and visitor movement. The Hazard–Ecology–Perception Landscape Planning (HEPLP) framework supports targeted zoning and governance, while the Perceptual–Spatial Landscape Planning Model (PSLPM) uses large language models, graph neural networks, and route optimization to reduce visitor pressure, improve perceptual coherence, and expand access to meaningful but overlooked scenes. Landscape design translates diagnosis and planning into operational actions. Design-based and cluster-specific toolkits support reversible construction, compatible material selection, stronger ecological connections, improved water retention, and more effective visitor allocation. The overall contribution is a coherent framework that connects historical understanding and resilience with implementable strategies for conservation and development. ... Read more

The concept of historic gardens has gradually expanded to encompass a broader range of landscape meanings. UNESCO's cultural landscape categories have significantly influenced land policy improvements in the context of globalization, with historic gardens being classified as Category 1 cultural landscapes. The other categories are organically evolved landscapes (Category 2) and associative cultural landscapes (Category 3). While existing studies have primarily focused on each of these categories individually, it remains unclear how to characterize a cultural landscape when all three categories coexist and influence each other, as seen in complex cases such as the Chengde Mountain Resort (CMR). Furthermore, strategies for improving sustainable land management based on this understanding are still lacking. This study uses landscape mapping to collect data, digitally reconstruct, and characterize cultural landscapes in the CMR based on four environmental factors: topography, accessibility, visibility, and land use changes. Based on this, we illustrate the evolution of the CMR through reconstruction, capturing four phases detailed in 144 scenes. From this, we identify six distinct groups of scenes with six targeted indicators, each reflecting specific spatial attributes of Category 1. Additionally, statistical and comparative analyses of land use changes illuminate various landscape dynamics of these scenes that correspond to Categories 2 and 3. The discussion presents a systematic sustainable pathway to characterize the interdependencies among UNESCO’s three cultural landscape categories. Based on these findings, this research proposes a three-level management model that connects dynamic authenticity and modern functionality, offering insights for urban policymakers navigating pluralistic cultural landscapes. ... Read more

Although there have been numerous studies on the heritage attributes, characteristics, and values of the historic garden as a special category of cultural heritage, the question is why a comprehensive review combining mainstream historic garden conservation with ways of understanding the garden in a landscape context has not been conducted. Landscape is an integrative concept that combines physical features and the diversity of functions with social and ecological processes throughout the scales of time and space. Therefore, this landscape context means applying the landscape approach to explore the organic connection between the scale of evolution and the architectonic elements in relation to each other. To elaborate, instead of viewing the garden as an object in one specific temporal-spatial frame, such an approach focuses on the evolution of the site in order to identify persistent structures and other values. The method used in this study involved paper coding as qualitative analysis combined with bibliometric visualization software. We reviewed 162 studies to explore the interconnections between the historic garden and landscape approach. The result is that there are three correspondences between landscape approaches and different stages of the historic garden’s conservation and development: studies identifying the historic garden’s characteristics using landscape mapping, studies demonstrating historic gardens’ conservation based on landscape planning, and studies exploring the potential of development and reuse through landscape design. Finally, we discuss the research gaps and outline an action framework for the conservation and development of heritage gardens in a landscape context. ... Read more