Traditional villages have reached milestones in developing a living culture, politics, economy, and society, among other aspects, while acting as important carriers of agricultural culture formed by long-term interactions between humans and nature. Unfortunately, traditional villages could disappear with the advent of urbanization. Therefore, this study enhances the accuracy of traditional village classification protection work by examining traditional villages in the Jinjiang River Basin in Quanzhou, China. A spatial pattern is extracted for the socio-ecological systems (SES) prototype of traditional villages, and an SES classification protection system is constructed based on a prototype analysis. Given the evaluation results, a K-means cluster analysis is applied to establish the SES sustainability levels for six types of traditional villages. After adjusting the types according to the principles of sustainability, equilibrium, and individual cases, six SES system types are identified: SES decay and shrinkage (Type 1), SES fusion and development (Type 2), SES ecological decline (Type 3), SES social decline (Type 4), SES ecological conservation (Type 5), and SES extensive development (Type 6). This system provides a quantitative analysis method to classify and protect concentrated and contiguous traditional villages. It also helps facilitate a better understanding of local rural society, economy, and culture, especially a deeper understanding of the interactions between humans and the rural environment.

This study addresses the construction of high-quality rural landscapes, crucial for China’s rural revitalization strategy, encompassing economic, social, cultural, and ecological dimensions. Focusing on 66 cold-region villages in Heilongjiang Province, it develops a dual-dimensional quality evaluation system that integrates both objective data and subjective perception indicators. It employs the entropy weight TOPSIS model to evaluate and grade the quality of rural landscapes and uses fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the complex causal relationships influencing high-quality rural landscapes. The results show that (1) The TOPSIS model identifies four grades of rural landscape quality: “Excellent-Good-Average-Poor”, with “Excellent and Good” grades defined as high-quality rural landscape. (2) The fsQCA reveals eight configuration paths that influence high-quality rural landscapes, which are categorized into four models: natural ecology, efficient industry, cultural heritage, and comprehensive development. The main contribution of this study lies in its systematic analysis of the complex causal relationships affecting rural landscape quality, providing a theoretical and technological foundation for guiding the sustainable development of cold-region rural landscapes within the framework of rural revitalization strategy in China.

The Frontal Area Index (FAI) is a commonly used, cost-effective preliminary screening tool for identifying the Least Cost Path (LCP) of urban ventilated corridors and mitigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, particularly in situations where data and budget availability are limited. Although its theoretical basis and simulation studies have been extensively examined, empirical validation through field measurements remains limited. This study assesses the FAI method’s applicability in two representative U.S. Midwest cities—St. Louis and Chicago—and proposes key modifications based on field-measurement validation. FAI simulations were conducted to identify optimal ventilation corridors, and the results were subsequently compared with in situ field measurements. Our findings indicated a strong correlation between FAI predictions and field data in St. Louis. In contrast, significant discrepancies were observed in Chicago, where simulated ventilation performance did not align with measured conditions, revealing the standard method’s limitations in complex urban topographies. To address these shortcomings, this study proposes four modifications to enhance the model’s accuracy for U.S. Midwest cities: (1) adjusting the model for varying urban morphologies, (2) limiting the calculation scope, (3) implementing a distinct approach for riverine areas, and (4) adopting a plot-based division for areas with large-scale buildings. This research verifies and refines the FAI method, creating a more reliable tool for diverse urban contexts. The optimized approach provides robust support for wind environment analysis, ventilation corridor planning, and UHI mitigation strategies.

Public spaces in cold-region historic districts often contain a mismatch between spatial accessibility and winter environmental usability. Highly accessible streets may be exposed to strong winter winds, whereas sheltered spaces may remain underused because of weak network connectivity. Taking the Xinmin Street historic district in Changchun, China, as a case study, this study develops a coupled analytical framework that integrates space syntax, ENVI-met microclimate simulation, and GIS-based overlay analysis to identify winter public-space potential under heritage conservation constraints. Visual integration derived from Depthmap was used to represent configurational accessibility, while pedestrian-level wind speed at 1.5 m was used to characterize winter wind exposure under a representative clear winter-day scenario. The results show that high-integration areas are concentrated along the main north–south street, but several of these segments coincide with wind corridors and therefore show limited winter usability. Conversely, low-wind areas are mainly located on the leeward sides of buildings and within relatively enclosed spaces, although some lack sufficient pedestrian connectivity. Low-intervention optimization, including link completion, entrance adjustment, permeability enhancement, and winter-priority route organization, increased the average integration value of low-wind spaces from 7.41 to 8.82. The framework helps planners and conservation authorities identify sheltered but under-connected spaces and supports heritage-sensitive renewal strategies for improving winter public-space usability in cold-region historic districts.