Characterizing the cultural landscape of traditional Chinese settlements through genome maps.

Plentiful traditional settlements are the key part of Chinese cultural heritage due to their prominent traditional cultural features and rich historical information. The rapidly growing social economy of China raises a pressing need for understanding their rich traditional knowledge and wisdom. In order to explore this issue, Cultural Landscape Genes of Traditional Settlements (CLGTS) has been proposed by Chinese scholars since 2003. Since that, it has been attracting wide attention and has made significant strides in many areas, such as urban planning and the development of tourism. However, CLGTS still faces significant difficulties in addressing the connections between the cultural elements and the entire spatial image of traditional settlements. To fill this gap, this work proposed Landscape Genome Maps of Traditional Settlements (LGMTS) based on CLGTS. First, this work clarified the definition of Landscape Genomes of Traditional Settlements (LGTS); then, this work deeply clarified the connotations of LGMTS, and addressed the relations among CLGTS, LGTS, and LGMTS. Based on these findings, this work further established the classifications of LGMTS and explored its functions. Finally, through a case study, the potential of LGMTS to catch the critical cultural features of traditional settlements was shown.