Identification Of Landscape Characteristics For Traditional Settlements In The Wuling Mountain Area Base On Integrated Protection

Wuling Mountain,an area of approximately 104,000 km2,is located at the junction of the Chongqing municipality and Guizhou,Hubei,and Hunan Provinces in the eastern part of southwest China.It is the largest multi-ethnic area relative not only to inter-provincial areas but also relative to administrative border regions in the interior of China.Nine ethnic minorities including the Dong,Gelao,Miao,and Tujia live around Wuling Mountain together with the Han.The unique physical and cultural landscapes are representative of ethnic minority areas in China.With the development of the new socialist countryside and urbanization,the living and production environment of the ethnic minority areas have been greatly improved,and the destruction of the traditional settlement landscape has been intensified.The purpose of this study is to establish the framework for landscape characteristics identification of the traditional settlements based on integrated protection.This includes the classification and protection of landscape character at the regional level,the classification of the corridor construction and protection of the traditional settlement landscape at the corridor level,and the identification and protection of traditional settlement landscape at the settlement level.The results could be used as a basis for the development of trans-regional protection,management,and planning of the natural and cultural landscape in this multi-ethnic area.The identification of landscape character at the regional level is of great significance to the traditional settlement environment.In this study,the altitude,relief amplitude,land cover and ethnic population density were selected to identify the landscape character,with the Affinity Propagation(AP)algorithm based on a bottom-up approach of a combination of the Geographic Information System(GIS).In total,22 types of landscape character were produced that belonging to 9 ethnic minorities living in mixed communities with other ethnic minority groups,with 311 landscape character units.The traditional settlements,distributed in 19 types of landscape character,were mainly inhabited by Tujia and Miao.In the basin with convenient transportation,the number of traditional settlements is small,because the natural and cultural characters of the settlement are greatly affected by outside influences.The traditional settlements,distributed in the area between the cultural routes,have a high coincidence rate with the distribution of rivers at the corridor level.The spatial concentration of traditional settlements is obvious,closely relating to land cover,slope and relief amplitude.185 traditional settlements and 198 cultural relics protection units were selected as heritage sources.Then the method of Minimum Cumulative Resistance(MCR)model was used to analyze the suitability of corridor.Based on that,traditional settlements were classified to protect in the core protected area,buffer area and marginal area.Finally,the traditional settlement landscape planning map was drawn,after taking the integrity and continuity of the corridor into account,as well as the distribution of cultural routes,rivers and heritage sources.The main corridor,which connects a large number of traditional settlements,plays a key role in the overall protection of the traditional settlement landscape.Natural,cultural and ethnic characteristics and aesthetic perception information,which has been collected,surveyed,taken pictures or drawn,was used to identify landscape characteristics of traditional settlements at settlement level.In this study,the main corridors were divided into five sections,which were Chongqing-Hubei,Hubei-Chongqing-Guizhou,Guizhou-Chongqing-Hunan,Hubei-Chongqing-Hunan,and Guizhou-Hunan.Then,the natural,cultural and ethnic characteristics and aesthetic perception of traditional settlements in different sections were analyzed.Typical traditional settlements were selected to describe in detail.The traditional settlement landscape needs to be regional integration protected.First of all,the region was divided into landscape core area,buffer area and coordination area,based on the analysis of landscape sensitivity,and put forward the landscape protection strategy in different protected areas at regional level.Then,the maps of traditional settlements distribution,landscape protection zoning,corridor suitability zoning were superimposed to divide protection levels of traditional settlements,and the corresponding protection strategies were proposed for to different levels of traditional settlements at corridor level.Finally,the protection strategies in natural,cultural and ethnic characteristics and aesthetic perception were proposed according to the landscape characteristics of the traditional settlements in the five sections of the main corridor at settlement level.The protection of natural characteristics included the protection and management of natural landscape resources,the protection and planning of plant landscape.The protection of cultural characteristics included the protection and management of farmland landscape,the protection and utilization of traditional architecture,and the protection of historical environmental elements.The protection of minority characteristics included the continuation of the traditional mode of life and production,the protection of the non-material culture and the inheritors.The protection of aesthetic perception included the protection of the settlement landscape spatial pattern and the coordination and unity of the landscape style.